Welcome The Dawn
by Katarite
Summary: It is the hour before the dawn at the end of the long night. The abyss is gone, but in the wake of unspeakable destruction two of Andromeda's crew must learn how to put their lives back together though their worlds have been ripped away from them. TrHa.
1. Bittersweet

Welcome The Dawn

Author's Note: This is my first attempt at writing an Andromeda story, and I must admit I was a little bit nervous since I watched the entire series for the first time in a matter of weeks a couple months ago. I couldn't help myself, though. I am a shipper at heart and there was so much untapped potential with Harper and Trance that I couldn't leave well enough alone. This is set immediately after the finale, and while it will contain romance, it is not strictly a romance story.

Chapter 1: Bittersweet

Bittersweet was the only word that Seamus Zelazny Harper could use to describe the day he had just lived through. Exactly how was one supposed to feel when the root of all evil and one's homeworld were both destroyed within hours of each other? He was an engineer, and usually there was some sort of manual detailing how things were supposed to work, and when the manual failed, he relied on his own ingenuity. He was at a loss in both departments today. There was no book entitled "World Destruction and Defeating the Darkness, How to Deal", and nothing in his short lifetime of experiences even came close to preparing him for what had just taken place.

With a great sigh he lowered himself onto his bed in Machine Shop 17. His many projects, usually scattered about the room in a sort of organized chaos, were in even greater disarray after the beating Andromeda had taken at the hands of the Nietzcheans earlier.

After the battle with the abyss had been won, and he'd seen to it that Rhade was safe in the hands of Trance, he'd spent hours working to fix Andromeda's systems until her hologram ordered him to his quarters to get some rest. He hadn't gone to his quarters, he'd gone to his machine shop, but the effect was the same. There was a bed both, and either way he wouldn't be getting any rest.

Andromeda meant well, but she didn't understand. No one really did. How could they? Dylan had lost his world after he pulled a Rip Van Winkle in the Hephaistos Black Hole, but it was different for him. When he woke up, Andromeda was still there, and he had a mission. He was going to bring back the almighty System's Commonwealth, and no one was going to stop him. Harper couldn't bring back Earth. He was sure breathing life back into a dead world was even beyond the skills of Trance Gemini, Solar Avatar. And, even if someone could miraculously bring back his planet, the billions of people who had populated it, including his entire family, would still be lost. They were nothing more to the universe than nameless casualties in its war with the Abyss.

He lay down and closed his eyes, thinking that he might try to do as Andromeda had ordered. Behind closed eyes, all he could see was Earth disintegrating. He could almost feel the heat of the slipfighter; hear his crewmates pleading with him to return to Andromeda. He could feel the jerking of the buckie-cables latching onto the slipfighter, and his manic need to get away, to join his people, if even for a moment. It was insane, and he knew it. His sensors had been giving him the same data as Andromeda's, and yet he'd felt like he had to keep going. He'd felt so alone then, and he felt alone now.

With a frustrated growl he opened his eyes and sprang up onto his feet. Like a lonely caged animal, he began to pace. He couldn't sit here alone in his machine shop. Unfortunately, he didn't really want to associate with the rest of the crew either. Dylan would just give a pep talk, Beka was never really that great with emotional upset, hers or anyone else's, Rhade was in-route to Terazed to be with his family, and while Doyle was more human than Rommie, both the avatars' emotional programming only went so far. That left Trance, who he hadn't really been close to in years, and who had hardly said two words to anyone after fixing Rhade up on Med-Deck hours earlier.

He looked around his machine shop for some sort of comfort. Metal glistened, and lights flashed. The place smelled of oil and ozone, and the buzz of machinery filled the air. It was usually his favorite place to be, surrounded by his machines in the same way that Trance liked being surrounded by her plants, but today, everything felt cold. He needed the warmth and comfort of a friend, and with wry reasoning he thought, who better to give warmth than a sun?

AAAAAAAA

"Where are you going?" Rommie asked, her voice sounding quite motherly in a nagging sort of way. Seamus practically jumped out of his skin. He had managed to make it almost completely to the Maru's hangar without running into anyone but a few bots. Frankly, Rommie was the last person he wanted to see since he was currently disobeying a direct order, "I thought I told you to go to your quarters and rest."

"Relax, Rom-Doll, I'm just goin' to the Maru," he replied. If he played his cards right she wouldn't grab him by the arm, drag him to his quarters, and lock him in there in a glorious showing of tough love.

"Harper, it has been a stressful day and you have not slept in over twenty hours. I sent you to your quarters for a reason." Did she always sound like a mother, or was he just overly sensitive right now?

"I know, I know, but I can't sleep. I tried. Honest, I did. The Maru was my first home away from home; maybe I will do better there. I promise I won't fix anything," he explained, holding his hands up in front of him in the classis sign of surrender. Rommie looked dubious. New plan. "Hey, what are you doing down here by the Maru?" Redirection. Perfect. If he made this about her, he might get away. It worked. Rommie paused for a moment and then said,

"I was looking for Trance. Dylan is concerned and she is… hiding." This was interesting.

"Hiding?"

"Yes, I believe she is on the Maru, but I could not find her, and she is masking herself from my sensors. She disappeared from my sensors a little over three hours ago, and the hangar was the last place I saw her."

"Hey, she probably wants to spend some time alone, and on a day like today, who doesn't. I'll keep my eyes open."

"Harper, you need to rest." Her tone had softened. This was it; she was giving in. He gave her a small, but sincere smile.

"Thanks for being concerned. I'll try, but I can't make any promises."

"Please do. You are the best engineer I have ever had, and I cannot afford to lose you to illness. Especially not now."

"Aw, Rommie, I could almost kiss you."

"Harper…"

"Okay, Okay, I'm going." He turned away and made his way towards the hangar doors. They slid open with a hiss, and there was the Eureka Maru. Beka's monstrosity of a ship was a dirty bronze, more boxy than anything else, and pockmarked with scars from battles past. It wasn't very big, and it wasn't very pretty, but for three of the Andromeda's crew, it was a second home. He, Beka, and Trance still spent a lot of time there despite having access to much nicer quarters and common areas on Andromeda. It was someplace they could claim as their own and not have to share.

Trance especially liked to hide out on the Maru. She kept her favorite plants there, still slept in the berthing area on occasion, and used it as a place for quiet meditation. He knew very little about Trance's life before she joined Beka's crew, but it was apparent that she hadn't had a lot of experience living amongst humans, or other organics for that matter. She wasn't exactly experienced in making friends, either. She had been more than a little socially awkward when Beka brought her onboard for the first time. He didn't know what drew Trance back to the Maru time and time again, but he liked to think that it was the first place she'd felt like she belonged. In that way, it gave them something in common, and ever since Trance had changed into her older self, it seemed like there was precious little they had in common. Trance would be on the Maru if she were hiding away from Dylan, and he had a pretty good idea where.

It only took him a few moments to gain access to Beka's ship. The entryway was dim and dusky. Pungent smoke hissed from a leaky tube that he'd never gotten around to fixing.

Harper's footsteps clanked on the deck-plates, echoing through the halls as he crossed over to Trance's room. Her 'room' was actually the environmental and A.G. Field Control Room, but in five years she'd made her mark. Plants on shelves, counters, and in hanging pots surrounded the computers and control panels. Large white candles, with dried wax drippings hanging to the sides like frozen tears were strategically placed around the room, and from the ceiling hung a couple of purple and burgundy hammocks for sitting in. There was even a vine climbing up a grate in the back of the room. The entire room smelled earthy and sweet, just like Trance. He marveled at her powers. The place had been dead after being neglected for months in the Seefra system, but in a matter of days she'd brought everything back to like, and now it was flourishing.

She wasn't in her room, and he didn't expect her to be. Anyone who crewed the Eureka Maru for any length of time learned to find a secret place to call their own when they wanted to be alone. Trance had managed to find the trickiest hiding spot on the entire ship. Beka still didn't know where the formerly purple girl had disappeared to during her six months crewing the Maru exclusively, but Harper knew. Harper knew all the hideaways and crevices, even ones he was sure Beka had either never known about, or forgotten long ago. It was his job as an engineer to know the ship inside and out, and he took that responsibility seriously. He'd told his boss about most of them, but out of respect for Trance's privacy, he'd kept hers a secret.

He left Trance's room behind and headed down towards one of the cargo bays. He stepped inside and crossed over to a storage closet in the corner. It was a small closet, hardly big enough for a small person to close himself inside. How Trance found the secret room behind the shelves was a mystery. He could only chalk it up to her ability to see things others couldn't. He'd only realized it was there due to a discrepancy on the schematics.

Harper stepped inside the closet and removed a couple of shelves. He knocked lightly on the wall so as not to frighten his friend.

"Harper?" she asked softly, her voice muffled by the wall separating them.

"Yep. Lemme in." Pre Andromeda he'd brought her food and such when she was hiding out from some client or other that Beka had invited onboard, or when she thought she was in trouble. She'd spent almost the entire day and night in there after shorting out the A.G. Field.

He had discovered her hiding in the hidden room on accident during her third week on board. He'd been rummaging through his junk collection in the cargo bay when she had emerged from the closet. He promised her he wouldn't bother her if she wanted to be alone, though sometimes he'd felt like he needed to check on her. She'd never acted like it bothered her.

The wall slid open and he ducked under a very short doorway into a room that was only about six steps deep and four steps wide if you weren't exceptionally tall. It was just enough room for the two of them to sit comfortably. Trance slid back until her back was up against the wall and pulled her knees up to her chest. She had on her red leather jumpsuit, which reminded him a bit too much of the battle armor she'd taken to wearing after trading purple skin for gold, for his comfort. He'd been afraid of her back then, but she didn't look all that frightening right now with her troubled eyes and tear-streaked face.

He took a seat a small distance away from her and slid the wall shut again. No one would be able to find them. The room was plated in a material that was almost impossible for sensors to penetrate, which made it the perfect hiding place if you didn't want to be found.

Four candles, two against each sidewall, lit the interior, and a couple of potted plants sat on the ground next to Trance. One was a yellow rosebush named Analise that she'd had for years, and the other he did not recognize. It was small and leafy with delicate flowers whose color he could not make out since the room was so shadowy.

"Lenna," she said in a small voice, as if reading his mind. He just nodded as he shifted his gaze from her plants to her. In the faint flickering candlelight he could almost see the girl who used to be his best friend. So much had changed. He had changed. She had changed more than anyone should in a lifetime, just to turn around and change again. His purple princess was in there somewhere, but he didn't really know who Trance was anymore.

That pained him. He could blame her. After all, Trance had been so busy tailing Dylan and working on a way to defeat the abyss that she hadn't really had time to work on their friendship, but he knew that wasn't fair. He hadn't really gone out of his way to sustain their friendship either. He had let it fall by the wayside because he wasn't sure how to deal with the new Trance. He thought he might have loved her at one point, and had been too scared to find out whether he could fall in love with the new Trance as well, but none of that mattered anymore. She wasn't even the new Trance anymore. In many ways, she was a lot like the old Trance again, and it was really long past time to mend fences.

"Are you okay?" he asked. Her lips curled into a shadow of a smile that didn't reach her dark eyes and disappeared quickly.

"No, yes, what kind of answer do you want? I feel everything, but I don't want to feel anything." Harper pursed his lips and nodded his head.

"Yeah, me too." They sat in silence for a moment. Trance's eyes stared passed him, seeming to focus on nothing at all. She blinked and a few tears escaped, leaving little trails of moisture on her sparkling cheeks. She looked different somehow, but he couldn't place it. It wasn't something in her appearance, but in the way she held herself.

"I am so sorry about Earth. All those people…" she said finally.

"It's not your fault Trance," he said, trying to brush off her comment, both because he didn't really want to think about Earth and because his mind was working a mile a minute. He had seen people huddled up the way Trance was, and if they were trying to pull into themselves. Where had he seen it? What did it mean?

"I ran away from my people, Seamus. If I had stayed maybe…" her voice cracked, she made a small noise in the back of her throat as if she were trying to clear it, then continued, "maybe I could have seen what was going on and stopped them before they destroyed Earth" Leave it to Trance to try and blame herself. It was time to change the subject and give himself time to figure out what was wrong. There was a discrepancy here, and he didn't like discrepancies.

"How long have you been in here?" he asked. She pulled her arms tightly around her knees and rested her head on her kneecaps with her eyes now trained fully on him. He'd always felt like she could see into his soul when she looked at him like that.

"A couple of hours."

"Dylan is worried about you. He sent Rommie over here to look. She said you'd disappeared off sensors three hours ago."

"I…" she cleared her throat again. Come to think of it, her voice sounded a little bit hoarse. That wasn't normal for Trance, was it? Her gaze fell away from him and she seemed to go into her own little world, "I had to go back home for a moment. They punished me…" She trailed off, either unable to finish, or unwilling to. His eyes narrowed. Her comments were surprisingly, and he had to admit refreshingly straightforward, but he didn't like the sound of them.

"Why did you go Trance?" he asked. His voice was sharper than he had intended it to be. "I mean, didn't they do the not so lovingly deceased red eyes' bidding?" She looked at him, her eyes focusing for a moment.

"I had no choice. The Nebula is strong, much stronger than me, and they rule the universe, whether organics know about it or not. If I didn't go, they would have come for me, and all of you would have been hurt. I couldn't bear that," she replied, and then did something he didn't expect. She began to cough. Her coughs weren't small, they were deep, crooping coughs, the kind that hurt the chest and left a normal person seeing stars when they were finished. She coughed for several long moments and then stopped suddenly, gasping for breath. She looked liked a frightened child. He inched closer to her.

"What did they do to you?" His voice sounded weak and far away to his own ears. His heart pounded, and he was suddenly very glad he'd thought to seek Trance out.

A few more tears leaked out of her eyes and she pulled her arms even tighter around herself. Now that he was closer he could see her body trembling as shivers wracked it. Everything clicked into place. The mystery was over. Trance had been holding herself like a sick child who didn't understand what was going on and was too scared to bring it. He knew the look well. He had seen it a million times on Earth, but couldn't place it on Trance because it was so out of character.

"They took away everything," she said breathlessly He scooted himself over until he was only a few centimeters away. He put a hand on her arm. A pained expression crossed her face and she tried to recoil from his touch, but he closed his hand around her arm gently. She watched him cautiously through eyes that he could now see were slightly glazed. Tiny pearls of sweat had broken out on her hairline. He took his free hand and gently set the back of it on her forehead. It took all his will power not to jerk his hand back roughly as he felt his skin burn. He glanced down and saw a small welt forming where his skin had made contact. That was a fever if he ever saw one.

"Come on, we're getting you to Med Deck." He pulled her arm away from her knees and wrapped it around his shoulder. She helped by unfolding herself and shakily getting to her feet with him. He pushed open the wall and helped Trance out of the little room, and then out of the closet. He left her leaning against the bulkheads while he went inside to extinguish the candles and shut the little room up again so no one would find it. She didn't look at him when he returned. "What do you mean they took everything?" he asked.

Trance swayed a bit and he helped her sit down. Her body was pressed against his and he could feel the heat of her skin through her jumpsuit. He let her lean against him despite it, just being careful enough not to let her skin touch his. She was still shivering.

"I'm just like you now," she whispered and he felt her body go limp as she passed out. He brushed some hair away from her flushed face before reaching up and tapping his data port.

AAAAAAAA

Dylan Hunt sat in his darkened quarters going over the events of the day. They were both spectacular and horrifying, and he was sure that he wasn't the only one who had a bittersweet feeling towards it all. He was thrilled at having his home back, even if Seefra wasn't exactly the home he remembered, but he was also worried. The Magog Worldship was still out there, the Lambent Kith Nebula was still out there, and his crew had been through enough emotional trauma in one day to give an entire fleet of psychologists enough work to last a lifetime.

He was especially worried about two of his crew, Harper, who had lost his entire homeworld today, and Trance, who in a way had also lost her world. Her people had turned against her, choosing darkness over the light they were supposed to represent. At best, she was never going to get the chance to go back home, and he didn't even want to think of the worst-case scenario. The Nebula was just too powerful for him to contemplate at the moment.

As captain, it was his job to comfort his crew and look after their well-being, but how could he comfort his engineer and medic? What could he offer them aside from a pep talk and an insincere "It will get better with time"?

"Dylan." He jumped a bit as the holographic Andromeda appeared in front of him. She stood tall in her High Guard uniform, with hands behind her back, and a serious expression on her face.

"Yes Andromeda," he replied nonchalantly. He was used to the holograms comings and goings by now.

"I am sensing two life signs on the Eureka Maru. One of them belongs to Harper, the other belongs to… Trance." Dylan sighed in relief. He didn't like not knowing where Trance was after the events of the last week.

"Good, you found her." Andromeda gave him a pointed look. He raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"Dylan, Trance isn't supposed to have life signs. Not like these." He wrinkled his brow.

"You're right," he said. Before Andromeda could say anything else, the Comm beeped and the frantic voice of his engineer broke into his quarters.

"Dylan, I'm on the Maru and you'd better get someone down here quick. There is something seriously wrong with Trance." Dylan traded looks with Andromeda, who nodded and disappeared. He pressed the Comm and said,

"Hold tight Harper, Rommie is on her way. You can tell me everything on Med Deck." He closed the Comm and grabbed his nearest jacket, slipping it on over his turtleneck and buttoning it as he left the room. For the record, this day was definitely more bitter than sweet. It was never easy.

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Thanks for reading, please review .


	2. Will to Live

Author's Note: I want to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. Your reviews are greatly appreciated. I cannot promise that chapters will always be out this promptly, but the semester is ending, so right now I have a little bit of extra time on my hands. Thanks again.

Chapter 2: Will to Live

"What can you tell me, Rommie?" Dylan asked in a level voice that belied the turmoil he felt inside. He had spent the greater part of the last year looking after the girl who now laid stretched out on a bed in the medical bay, helping her to remember who she was, and lending her his strength so she could do what needed to be done. Before that, he'd taken council from her, and before that, when she sported a tail and a decidedly unusual skin color, looked to her whenever he needed someone to remind him not to take life too seriously, which was frankly, quite often. He didn't exactly know what roll she played in his life, or his heart, but she was important, and he couldn't stand the thought of losing her.

"She's sick." Rommie said as a matter-of-factly. It was her way of putting him off because she didn't have the answers he was looking for, but that didn't stop him from pressing further.

"I know that Rommie. Why is she sick? How?" Rommie waved a scanner over Trance's body, glanced at the readouts on a computer screen, and then looked him directly in the eye.

"I don't know the how, but I assume the why is because her immune system is consistent with that of a newborn infant." She immediately turned back to her work. Dylan nodded though the answer was not sufficient enough to quell his need for information, and turned to his engineer. The poor boy looked shell-shocked as he stood a few feet away watching Rommie tend to Trance with wide eyes. After the day Harper had just lived through, it was a miracle he didn't need to be sedated, but Dylan had learned long ago not to underestimate how tough the young man was. Years of poverty and strife coupled with a keen mind and amazing resiliency had created a force to be reckoned with. He had to wonder, though, what was the boy's breaking point? If Rommie couldn't save Trance, would it be the infamous straw that broke the proverbial camel's back?

"You're sure you told me everything that happened, everything she said? You didn't leave anything out?" he asked. Harper glanced at him for only a second before training his eyes back on the two women. It was strange seeing him stand so still, as if he were made out of clay.

"Everything. She didn't say much. You know how Trance is." And that was the truth. Dylan knew better than most how Trance was. She was open with him, or at least open as she could be. He'd had to learn the hard truth that holding back was second nature to her, and sometimes even extensive prodding couldn't bring everything she knew to light.

"Then she was only onboard, like this, for a couple of hours. How did she get so sick so quickly?" Rommie pressed a few buttons on a nano-bot injector and pressed it into Trance's neck before looking towards him and answering.

"There are viruses everywhere. As much as I want to be completely sterile, I cannot get rid of every contaminant, and I have no control over those on the Eureka Maru. Trance must have picked up one of these viruses shortly after returning, and with virtually nothing to slow it down, it quite effectively ravaged her body. This particular virus would not have acted so quickly and viciously on a human, but it's thriving in Trance's system."

"Can you help?" Harper asked helplessly. Rommie stopped what she was doing and stood perfectly still for a moment. This is what Rommie did when she was trying to sort through complicated emotions, Dylan knew. If androids could sigh, she would have. When she answered, her voice was soft and her words came slowly.

"I wish I could say yes, Harper, but I don't know. She is organic now, which means unlike before, I have a better idea of how to treat her, but her physiology is vastly different from a human being's. For instance, she seems to have one organ that does all the work of the liver, kidneys, and pancreas. And, as I said before, this virus would not have affected a human in the same way." Rommie explained, "I can tell you that I believe if she survives this virus, her immune system will become fully functional over time. She does not lack one, hers is just immature."

Dylan sighed, closed his eyes, and rubbed his temples. The Lambent Kith Nebula, the people he had been trying not to worry about less than an hour before, Trance's very own people, had done this to her. A council of suns, people who were supposed to embody warmth and light had done this. She had told Harper that they took everything. What did that mean? How he wished he could know what had happened when Trance went home a few hours before. Unfortunately, the only person who could tell him was in pretty bad shape.

A sudden alarm quickly focused his attention. It wasn't a very loud alarm, nor was it harsh, but it was insistent, and did not bode well for Trance. Rommie was quick and efficient, turning off the alarm, and trying a flurry of different treatments in quick succession.

"What's going on?" he demanded. Rommie didn't answer at first. She kept working, almost frantically, before giving up and stopping.

"She's slipped into a coma. I tried what I could think of, but I do not have the instincts of an organic physician. Normally, one would use medication to help fight the virus, but I gave her a quarter dose of sleeping medication earlier when she woke up to help calm her delirium, but it knocked her out as if it were a full dose. That implies a chemical sensitivity that makes me reluctant to experiment any further. She is simply too different. We could try to get her to a regular physician, but there would be too much risk of them doing something to harm her, and anyway, I doubt there would be time. The virus will have either run its course, it will have killed her." Harper made an unintelligible noise in the back of his throat. It could have been an attempt at "Uh unh" or "No", or a combination of the two, but Dylan couldn't be sure. He shared his engineer's sentiments. Rommie gave Harper a sad smile, which Dylan supposed was meant to be comforting. "It is up to her whether she will live or die now, Harper."

"She can't die," the boy said softly to no one in particular.

"You need rest." Rommie said.

"I'm not leaving." The android picked up an injector and filled it with something. Dylan guessed it was a tranquilizer, and he was right.

"I am going to give you this to help you sleep. You can lay down on that bed over there." Harper looked ready to object so Dylan stepped in before the boy could say anything.

"She's right. We are going to have to face the Magog Worldship in the next couple of days and I need my Engineer."

"Fine." Harper said in a tone that implied quite the opposite. He let Rommie inject him with the medication, and then climbed on top of the aforementioned bed.

"Speaking of the Worldship…" Rommie said, nodding to a point just beyond him. The Andromeda hologram appeared.

"Captain, the First Triumvir is contacting you in regards to the Magog," she said.

"Send the communiqué to my quarters, I'll be in there in a moment."

"Aye captain." The hologram disappeared.

"Rommie, is there anything more you can do?" She shook her head. "Okay, then I am going to send Doyle in here to watch over them. I need you on Command while Beka is sleeping."

"Shouldn't we tell her what has happened?"

"We will as soon as she wakes up. She needs to sleep."

"You do as well."

"I will sleep when this is all over," he replied. His eyes swept over med deck. Trance lay so still on one bed that he couldn't even tell if she was breathing, and on another Harper was curled up on his side, already sound asleep. It struck him then how young they both were. Of course, Trance was probably a few billion times Harper's age, but in her own way, she was still a child. Her sun might be old, but he didn't think her avatar was. There was something sincere about her innocence and naivety. "So young," he said out loud.

"They both have a strong will to live. They are survivors and have shown us so on many occasions." Rommie said.

"I hope you're right." With that said, he left med deck, but as he traveled towards his quarters he couldn't get the sterile scent of medicine out of his nostrils, nor could he remove the image of his two young crewmembers, one ravaged by illness, the other by emotional trauma, from his mind. He would find out soon enough just how strong their will to live was.


	3. The Chambers

Author's Note: Thanks again for all your reviews. This chapter is another long one. I apologize a bit for the length squid109, but it couldn't be helped . My muses have been busy and the pages keep filling. The next chapter should be out in another day or two.

Chapter 3: The Chambers

Beka hated hospitals, or anything resembling a hospital. They reminded her of bad times; of being sick, of the people she loved being sick, but most of all of death. She had spent a lot of time with her father in a hospital towards the end. They had charged too much for the small amount of care they'd given him, and in the end, it hadn't meant anything at all. He still died. But despite her hate, here she was again, sitting beside Trance's bed on something that too closely resembled a deathwatch.

Andromeda had explained everything to her within moments after she'd awakened from a sleep that didn't last nearly long enough. The AI, while still able to express emotion, was usually a little on the cold side, and her description of Trance's ailment had left little room for hope. Beka watched the enigmatic girl lying there on the bed and tried to imagine her opening her eyes, but she couldn't. She couldn't even imagine her to be sleeping with all the medical equipment around her.

"She's still alive, Beka." Doyle said, kneeling down beside her. The pretty blonde avatar had a very human expression of compassion on her face. Her eyes mirrored that compassion, and Beka had to marvel at Harper's genius, though she would never admit it to his face. If he knew what she really thought, he might stop trying so hard to impress, and that would be a waste of good intellect.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Doyle tilted her head to the side and gave Beka a small smile.

"Hopefully a long time yet. Her fever is down a couple of degrees. She's fighting." Doyle then stood and picked up a gray cloth off a nearby table. She wiped Trance's brow, set the cloth down, and then walked over to the room's fourth occupant, a sleeping Harper. Beka reached out a hand and delicately stroked Trance's hair. She would have taken a hand, but the girl's fever made that nearly impossible. She'd asked Doyle about it, and the avatar reported that Trance's normal body temperature, though she was now organic, was quite a bit higher than a human's and that her fever made her skin even hotter.

"When will he be awake?" she called over her shoulder.

"About ten more hours. She gave him enough to knock him out for a while to give his body time to recuperate. She didn't think he would rest once he was awake, and I agree with her. He's going to keep himself busy, for better or for worst."

"Yep, that sounds like Harper. But when what happened to Earth really hits him, it's gonna hit him hard." She'd only seen the boy crash and burn once before, shortly after Vexpeg died, and it had not been pretty. He put on a show of being strong and uncaring. He hid behind his jokes and sexual overtures, but the loss of people he cared about ripped him up inside, and yet he still made the effort to get close to people, despite living a life where everything he loved was eventually taken away. She was afraid that the loss of Earth might force him to withdraw into himself, and the only person she thought might be able to stop that was balancing precariously between life and death.

"That's what we're here for." Doyle said.

"That's why Trance has to live. They were best friends you know, a few years ago, before Seefra."

"I know, Harper told me."

"It might have been more. Who knows?" They stayed in a companionable silence for a little bit before Beka said, "I read somewhere that people who are in comas are still able to think, and might even be able to hear people outside. What do you think?" Doyle came over to stand beside her.

"I think the only person who knows what is going on in Trance's mind is Trance." Doyle's eyes suddenly lost focus and she stood perfectly still. Beka was not alarmed; she'd seen this happen before with both Rommie and Doyle. "That was Rommie. You're needed on Command. Terazed is sending up a few hundred crewmembers and Rommie needs your help preparing for them. Dylan is finally going to bed."

"Right." Beka glanced around the room one more time, patted down Trance's hair, nodded a goodbye to Doyle and left, glad to be off Med Deck. She sighed heavily. Unfortunately, as terrible as things were, Trance and Harper were the least of her worries. A few hundred crewmembers was a mere fraction of the few thousand Andromeda needed to help face down the Magog, and when that was all over, if they survived, she had millions of wayward children to tie to her apron strings, and at the moment she wasn't sure whether she would rather go hand to hand with the Magog, or deal with the Nietzcheans.

Beka secretly hoped that if Trance were lost inside her mind, as some theorized coma patients were, the girl would not find her way back until after the first battle was decided. In that way, maybe she wouldn't have to face the horror of being eaten alive, or made into a breeding factory for Magog spawn. It would be a mercy to be spared that. Then again, Trance was her good luck charm, and the Andromeda needed all the luck they could get.

AAAAAAAAA

"Trance, why do you sit alone in the dark?" Trance heard the familiar voice, but could not see its owner through the darkness. She looked up, but otherwise did not move from her position, sitting with knees drawn up to her chest, hugging them as a child would a stuffed toy.

"How is it you can contact me? I am no longer Lambent Kith," she asked.

"We share a bond that even the Nebula can not take a away. Most are not even trueborn. They cannot understand the link between those born from the same energy. Their failing is our benefit. You did not answer my question."

"Darkness is all I see," she replied. She felt nothing in this darkness. There was no sound other than that of her breathing. It was a lonely place, but it was comfortable. There was no pain here, no fear. She didn't feel as if she were being torn apart molecule by molecule anymore. If she could just hide here, she would never hurt again; she would never have to face life as an organic, nor see her friends come to harm because she could no longer help them.

A small light appeared, a few feet off the ground, flickering like a flame, though there was no candle present. A shadowy figure stood just beyond, a mirror image of herself only with shorter hair and decidedly male features. His expression was calm, though in his eyes she could see a great sadness.

"There is always light so long as there is hope, Trance."

"Do you truly believe that, Castor?" He took a step closer to her. He was wearing loose fitting black trousers with a golden floor length vest that did not close in the front, showing off his smooth, sparkling chest. It was the traditional dress for males of the Lambent Kith. In his hands he cupped the light, which she could now see was a very small replica of a sun, his sun. He kneeled before her and reached out to take her hand. She did not move to stop him. The small sun hovered between them.

"I do."

"Perhaps then, I have lost hope."

"You, my twin, the brightest light of all, the Fire Princess, and heir to the throne? How can you ever lose hope?"

"The Nebula took those things away from me. They were made too strong. Our perfect possible future is lost. We assumed that the Nebula would cooperate when it came time because we could not see how the darkness had infected them. How can you even be here right now? The Abyss destroyed the world you created, the people you've tended to for hundreds of thousands of years, and your wife, your beautiful Terra."

"I am here because of you. Come with me." He stood, pulling her with him. She did not resist. He took a step and she followed. The darkness melted away into an incredibly bright light that forced her to blink until she could see clearly. She gasped. They were on the hilltop of a lush, green planet. Multi-colored flowers covered the ground as far as the eye could see. A road paved with jewel-colored stones led down to a distant and ancient city that seemed as if it had been carved out of the land. White stone glistened from beneath thick layers of vines, some flowered, other's simply green. Despite its obviously being old, it was well kempt. People as colorful as the land they occupied gracefully moved about the streets. They were the Lambent Kith, or at least those who chose to spend their time in organic form. She didn't have to look behind her to know that there was an imposing building, huge, with columns and archways carved out of the same stone as the city. The Chambers is what it was called, and it was the meeting place of all the governors of the Lambent Kith: the Nebula; the Council of Moons; and the System of Planets.

"Why have you brought me back here?" she questioned angrily.

"You choose not to face what has happened. You must remember and accept it, or you will disappear."

"I can not live through this again." She fell silent for a moment and watched her brother. She refused to turn around and see The Chambers, just as she had refused to dwell on it while sitting alone on the Maru after returning. His eyes were an ocean of sorrow, though his face still remained neutral. If the Nebula knew he was here now, inside her mind, he would be punished in a harsher manor than she herself had been. She was taboo now. No one was supposed to contact her. Not even her twin. And, being male he was not afforded the same leniency she had been given. Talking to her would likely be the death of him. "Maybe it would be better if I just disappeared."

A flash of anger crossed Castor's face. She had seen him angry before, but the anger had never been directed towards her. She pulled her hand out of his and stepped back. The anger of a sun was a fearsome thing to behold. In only a moment, he was composed again. He always had been the calmest of her true siblings.

"Your flaw Trance Gemini is that you always give up too easily. Whenever you cannot see the answer, whenever things get too tough, or when it hurts too much, you run away."

"Do you know the danger I am putting you in at this very moment?" she shot back. Her tone was sharp. If things weren't so serious it would have struck her as amusing that she'd resorted back to the tones she'd used on him as a child.

"If I cared about the danger, I would not be here. The universe will not be better off without you. Your friends need you still, and even though you can no longer see the future, I can. Our perfect possible future is not lost; we just have to find a different path. And what's more, I need you."

"Castor…" Her voice was small. She didn't know what to say to make him understand, and part of her had to admit that was because he was right. He usually was.

"The abyss destroyed Earth, and its avatar, my wife. The only solace I can find is that the humans I was given charge to protect have already taken their place amongst the stars and are working to bring about our future, as was foretold before our birth. It would be more than I could bear to lose you as well." He took a step forward and placed a loving hand on her face. "Speaking to you could cause me harm, but losing you would hurt me more."

"I don't know what to do," she admitted. The caress of his thumb on her cheek brought her more comfort that she could have imagined. She'd only been allowed a minimum amount of contact while she was part of the Nebula, and the part of her that could never conform to their unity, that chose to remain unique, missed him very much.

"Turn around and remember, Trance. Enter The Chambers again and accept what has happened in your mind so that you can begin to accept it in the real world. Do not give up. Do not hide from it, and keep with you the knowledge that you and I are not alone in opposing the Nebula. There is still a perfect possible future out there. We just have to find it."

"Will you stay with me?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I must go now. Perhaps I will see you again soon, in the real world." She watched stoically as he shimmered and disappeared. _Here goes nothing_, she thought and turned around.

AAAAAAAAA

"Good morning sleepyhead." Harper opened his eyes to see Doyle's face a few inches away from his. She had a soft smile on the gourgeous full lips he'd given her. He smiled back at her.

"That's something I can get used to waking up to every morning," he said. Doyle rolled her eyes and stood up.

"I guess you're going to have to live without," she replied. He sat up and shrugged his shoulders.

"One day, Doyle..."

"One day you will find yourself a nice girl to settle down with and leave me alone." With a teasing smile shot at her he began stretching out his limbs. His body felt stiff, but he had to admit he felt rested. Rommie, of course, knew what was best. Why did he always try and argue? Oh right, he liked to. She was cute when she was being officious.

"How long was I out for?"

"Thirteen hours. You needed the sleep." His eyed fell on Trance's bed and Doyle followed his gaze. His smile dropped. "Her fever is down some, but she's still in a coma. I know you want to stay here, but you need to take a shower and head directly to command. We're going to be facing the Worldship in about five hours."

"So soon?"

"Yes. The Commonwealth has given us as many ships as they can spare, and we have 537 new crewmembers to help us out. There are some engineers you're going to have to get acquainted with pretty quickly. Try not to scare them away."

"I don't scare people away." She gave him a pointed look, "Okay, so I am a little overzealous. They should be sacred. 537 people aren't going to do us a whole lot of good against the Magog. In the most likely scenario, we're all going to be Magog food by the end of the day."

"Maybe so, but that doesn't mean we don't fight. Just figure out what you are fighting for. I am fighting for you, and for my home." He hopped off the bed to stretch out some more.

"I'll fight for all of you, for Earth," he said and then motioned to Trance, "and especially for her. She at least deserves the chance to get better… Although, we could really use her help out there." Doyle placed a hand on his shoulder.

"She has her own battle to fight. Now get going, and don't forget to shower. I can't smell you the way humans can, but I'm pretty sure you're ripe."

"Alright, alright, fine," Harper said in a teasing tone. He felt better now that he was rested and had something to keep his mind occupied. He would think about his life later, when there was no more battle to be fought.

"I'll see you on command in a few hours, and then we're going to bring it."

"For Earth."

"For you."

"For Trance."

"And, for everyone." He left Med Deck thinking for the first time that maybe with so much to fight for they had a fighting chance.


	4. Battlefield

Chapter 4: Battlefield

Eighty-three ships were all the Commonwealth could spare. Eighty-three ships that were much smaller and weaker than herself. Andromeda almost couldn't believe it. She had fought battles with lesser villains with more ships than that, and still barely won. How many of them could survive even one shot from a Point Singularity Weapon? How many could fend off hoards of Magog swarm ships breaking through their hulls, bent on feeding on their crews? Eighty-five percent of those ships weren't even alive, and even more than that were crewed with people just out of the training grounds on Terazed and other planets. In fact, the crew she'd been given were just out of the academy. Beka was having a field day with the fighter pilots.

Why, one might ask, would the Commonwealth be so stingy with their ships? Andromeda copped it up to stupidity. The hostile Nietzchean prides were knocking on their front door, so they couldn't be bothered to stop the monster a couple of blocks down. It was like trying to exterminate ants while ignoring a pack of wolves. She could clearly see the folly, but the organics in charge could not. They were shortsighted. Sometimes she wondered if she was crewed with the last intelligent organics in the galaxy, or if people with lesser intelligence craved power more.

"Andromeda, is everyone in formation?" Dylan asked. His voice was strong and demanding, as a captain's voice should be. The crewmembers that filled command stood up a little straighter. They were all so very young. Had any of them actually been in a battle before? Rhade, who had come on board with them, and was now manning the pilot's station, was the only calm organic aside from Dylan on the entire deck.

"We are in formation and ready to go." Andromeda sent her hologram down to check on Harper in the slipstream core. The young genius bounced around from control panel to control panel like a madman making sure everything was in order. She had never seen a fully-grown human with so much energy before meeting Harper. He could put most children to shame. His energetic movements however did not belie his fear. His shoulders were tense, and his heartbeat and adrenaline levels were far higher than normal. She was impressed, though. Four years ago he would not have been functional knowing he was flying straight into the heart of the Magog. He had grown a lot. He noticed her presence and stopped working, reaching for a Sparky Cola. What did Beka call the vile substance? Oh yeah, Harper's fuel.

"Is everything in order down here?"

"You betcha, darlin'. But, can you do me one teeny tiny little favor?" He asked. How could a Human talk so fast? She feigned an exasperated sigh.

"What is it, Harper?"

"Can you try not to get hit, or let any Magog on board?" She smiled.

"I will do my best." Her hologram disappeared. Andromeda scanned Med Deck to make sure Trance was all right. The girl was safely ensconced in a stasis chamber until after the battle. Her condition had not changed. The AI knew that both her other personas were quite worried, and she was as well, but she was a warship, and the battle was at hand. There was nothing she enjoyed more than a good battle with the odds stacked against her. Worry would have to wait.

Her hologram reappeared on the slipfighter hangar deck where Beka was suiting up with a couple dozen young men and women. They were the top-graduating students at the Academy, or so she had been told. She hoped they were, because each one of them meant something to her. The loss of them would not hurt as much as the loss of her senior crew, those she'd spend the last five years with, but it would still hurt.

"Are you ready to go?" she asked. Beka looked up from buckling a boot. Her black armor glistened in the brightly lit room. She was tough woman, and the one Andromeda could identify most with now that Trance was her more naive self again. Beka would have made a wonderful warship.

"Who can be ready for something like this? We have eighty-three ships; they have twenty planets and a sun?" Beka's sarcastic comments, a shield for her fear, were noted.

"The Worldship might be easier to defeat now that the Abyss is gone." Andromeda said in what was meant to be a comforting tone.

"Might be, but not will be. Right."

"Right,"

"Then let's bring it." Her hologram disappeared again. She delved into the minds of her avatars. First, Rommie, who was as much a part of herself as the slipstream core, and then Doyle, who was independent of Andromeda, but allowed herself to be used as an avatar when the need arose. Both were frightened, as was the rest of the crew, but fully functional and ready to go. Andromeda quickly deployed her bots into positions where they could help and then appeared in the main screen on Command.

"We are ready to enter slipstream on your order, Captain" she reported.

"Then Rommie, let's bring it." Dylan said. Andromeda fought down a sudden burst of excitement. This is what she'd been made for.

"Signaling all ships to begin streaming," Doyle announced.

"Transiting into slipstream now," said Rhade. In a moment, they were on the other side of the slip portal.

"All ships are following as planned," said Rommie. Similar reports from each station were shouted across the deck for Dylan to hear. Doyle signaled to everyone to make the next jump, the jump that would lead them right into the jaws of the bear. She felt fear for her crew. Three times she had faced this thing, and three times she'd lost, and the first time, none of her crew made it out alive. The third time was just as bad. If it had not been for Trance, they would have all perished. Those weren't very good odds, especially taking into account that the one time they'd gotten out without any help, they'd had a nova bomb, which they did not at the moment.

She exited slipstream and saw the Worldship. It loomed before her in all its glory. She put it on screen. One of the young crewmembers gasped, forgetting his training for a moment.

"Captain, all ships are accounted for." Doyle reported.

"I am sensing Magog swarm ships heading in our direction." Rommie said.

"Ship-wide." Dylan commanded. A two-toned buzz announced to the entire crew that their captain wanted to speak to them.

"We are about to engage the enemy. Most of you are new to this. Keep calm, and do it like we planned, and we'll have a better chance at getting out of this alive. The Magog Worldship threatens all the known worlds. We, the crew of Andromeda, are their last defense. Think of your families and your homes. You are doing this for them. Code Black." The klaxon sounded just as a few swarm ships decided to punch into her hull. Dylan pressed a button on one of the panels.

"Beka, you know what to do?"

"You betcha. Those swarm ships won't know what hit them." Andromeda opened the hangar doors to let the pilots out on Beka's command. She armed weapons at Dylan's command and braced herself for the damage she was about to receive. _This is a good crew_, she told herself bracingly, and then she remembered the old high guard saying that had become quite popular right before the fall. _In Dylan Hunt we trust_.

AAAAAAAA

"Rommie, darling, sweetheart, can you at least try to avoid the PSWs" Harper asked as he ducked out of the way of an exploding console. He almost tripped over something, looked down, and shuddered at the corpse of one of the Magog who was lucky enough, or unlucky enough, depending on how you looked at it, to force its way onto Andromeda.

"I'm doing the best I can. My hands are a bit full right now." Harper climbed over the corpse and pulled out his data link cord. He put one end of it in the console, and slid the other into his dataport. It sparked a bit as the ship was hit again. He grimaced at the shock, but kept his mind focused on manipulating the data stream.

"I know you are, babe. It's just frustrating. We've been at this for hours, and I don't know how much longer I can keep you together. How does it look out there?" He quickly discovered that the reason why communications were down was due to a blown relay. With a single thought he rerouted the data stream into another relay. That should help some. He removed the linkup and tapped his dataport.

"Dylan, communications are back up."

"Good to know, Harper. Some of our weapons are down now, can you see what you can do?" Somewhere a panel exploded with a cacophony of crashing metal sounds. The ship lurched and Harper had to hold on to something.

"I'll see what I can do, but I can't make any promises. My best guess it that they're gone. Vamoose. Probably blown to bits at the rate things are exploding."

"Just try your best." Dylan signed off and Harper headed out of the control room he'd been in to the weapons controls. He could probably check them out from any control room or machine shop, but sometimes it was easier to have things right on hand, and there was a distinct possibility that the weapons control room would be free of dead Magog, and live ones for that matter.

"Hey you, get in there and make sure communications stay up," he ordered one of the new crewmembers he'd been assigned. The kid, who was probably about the same age as him, nodded quickly and darted into the room. _Excitable_, Harper thought.

"Rommie, what does it look like out there?" he asked.

"We have lost twenty-three ships, but have taken out about fifteen of the Magog's worlds. Without the Abyss to guide them, their actions are uncoordinated and erratic."

"Unfortunately they are still Magog, and tough sons of…"

"That is correct." Andromeda said, cutting off his curse. He jumped down a ladder and landed hard, feeling his ankle twist as Andromeda lurched yet again. Great. He was cut up, burned, and bruised enough. The last thing he needed was to be limping.

"Can you tell Rhade to be more careful? I can't fix anything if I break my neck."

"He says, and I quote, 'tough luck'." Harper rolled his eyes and then allowed a small smile. Some things would never change. Who'd have thought he'd make friends with a Nietzchean?

He limped his way into the control room a moment later. It was a mess. Wires hung out of the walls, some of them sparking, and acrid smoke filled the air. There was hardly an area accessible. That was bad news. He probably wouldn't be able to do a damn thing on the fly, but he had to try. To take his mind off the task at hand, he decided to keep talking to Andromeda.

"Is Trance all right?" he asked. She was alone on Med Deck, and he'd been worried for hours. There was a pause before Andromeda answered,

"She is still safe in stasis. I have several bots guarding her and the other injured crew that have been brought to medical."

"Good, Trance doesn't need to become a tasty readymade treat for the Magog."

"Agreed."

"This is not good," he said kneeling in front of the main control console. It almost couldn't be called a console anymore. "Not good. Not good. Not good." He pulled out his linkup and linked into the console, whose entry point was thankfully undamaged. He whistled as he realized exactly how much damage had been done. What exactly was Dylan throwing at the Magog? The silverware?

"My internal sensors are acting up. What is the problem?" Andromeda asked. Harper raised his eyebrows and said,

"What isn't? When Dylan said some of the weapons weren't working, what he _really_ meant to say was all we have are Point Defense Lasers and some really awesome slipfighters. Rommie, we have nothing left and I don't know what to fix first. If we don't get out of here, we're going to go kaboom. We're fighting with sticks, and not very big ones" The Andromeda hologram appeared in front of him.

"Something is happening. Brace yourself." She vanished almost the instant she had finished, but he heeded her warning. He grabbed onto the base of the console, hugging it as if it were a long lost friend. Andromeda pitched to one side and then to the other. The ship rolled and he felt the AG fields weaken for a moment before stabilizing. A second later the ship jumped into the slipstream and transited back into normal space so quickly that Harper felt what little breakfast he'd been able to force down shift uncomfortably in his stomach.

He was on his feet in an instant and ignoring his twisted ankle, and all other discomforts, he raced towards command. He flew up ladders, barreled down hallways, sometimes nearly tripping over fallen crewmembers and dead Magog, until he barged through the Command doors, sweaty, and out-of-breath.

"What… the hell… was that?" he asked through gasps for air.

"Well hello Mr. Harper," Dylan said dryly. He looked warn. Everyone on deck did with the exception of Doyle and Rommie.

"Captain, only fifteen ships made it through," said the former. Dylan rubbed his temples and asked,

"The slipfighters?"

"All but two made it back. Beka is safe." Harper resisted the urge to ask his question again since now was not the time to act like a two-year-old. They would remember he was there in a moment. He was relived to hear Beka was all right. He didn't know what he'd do if he'd lost her. She was his number one bud, his big sister, and the one who took him in when no one else would. She was irreplaceable.

"Harper, damage report," Dylan commanded. Harper grimaced and shook his head.

"You don't really want to know. What happened there at the end, anyway? One minute I was seriously considering on making peace with the Divine Rev Bem was so fond of, and the next we're in slipstream."

"I wish I could tell you Mr. Harper. One minute we were fighting, and the next, all that was left of the Worldship exploded. It was like the sun went supernova, only this time it took everything with it."

"That's really weird, why? Not that it's not a good thing, but why?"

"Never look a gift horse in the mouth." Rhade spoke up. Harper mouthed his words tauntingly and then said,

"This is Andromeda. We _always _look the gift horse in the mouth, or the moment we've turned out backs it kicks us." Dylan sighed deeply.

"He's right. But, we'll look more into it later. Let's get everyone together and get some rest. That was a long battle, and we all need it. You're all dismissed. Andromeda, get your bots to man the critical stations."

"Aye, Captain." One by one the crew left their stations. Some kneeled down to tend to fallen comrades, other left the deck per the captain's orders. Seamus stood there and watched them go, feeling a little lost.

"Harper," the Andromeda hologram said, "you need to go to Medical. You are going to need that ankle in order to fix me."

"I'll come with you. There's a certain person who needs to be taken out of stasis," Doyle announced. She stepped up beside him. He took a tentative step. His ankle really did hurt. No sooner had he winced, Doyle wrapped his arm around her shoulder for support. "Come along tough guy." He smiled at her and proceeded to hobble along beside her.


	5. Lemon Margaritas

Chapter 5: Lemon Margaritas

Trance braced herself as she turned to face what she did not want to face. Before her was a memory, one she did not wish to remember, but had to none-the-less. The building was not real, nor were the people standing before it. This was all inside her mind, but at the moment she could not make the distinction. She had already lived through this once before, but it felt like the very first time.

The Chambers gleamed in the bright sunlight, shimmering like the skin of many of the people standing in rows before it. They were all here for her trial. They had been summoned, those who were willing to come out of some connection to her, or simple curiosity. Some of them were acquaintances, others were family, but only a few were friends. Her destiny had always been separate from theirs and she was allowed very few friends growing up. Her eyes met with Flux's, avatar of the planet Mars. He gave her a weak smile. She had seen him recently, and now it seemed all too briefly. His appearance had been a somewhat of a shock to her. Most avatars of planets took on some of the characteristics of their planet when they grew past the purple, but his skin had been decidedly silver, and not red. Then again, he was Trueborn like her, and most of the Trueborn were just beginning to grow into the next stage of their long lives. Their forms were unpredictable.

Children and young adults stood beside their parents, tails flicking back and forth, and purple skin shimmering. Their costume was colorful and imaginative, since creativity was valued in children. They wore flowers in their short hair, or sparkling things, just as she had when she was a child not to long ago. They were beautiful, all of them. It was easy to see which were Trueborn, and which had been born from those created by the Ancient Vedrans. The Trueborn young adults watched her sullenly, fully aware of her crimes, whether they agreed they were crimes or not. They were around the same age as her, several billion years old, and many were in various stages of their change. Their wisdom shone through their childlike demeanors. The oldest of the other group were at most a few million years old. They stared wide eyes. The Chambers had never been used in their lifetime.

The children's parents watched her stoically, dressed in their pants and robes. The men's bare chests shone in red, silver, gold, and white. She saw condemning looks in their eyes. What did they know of the workings of government aside from what the Nebula told them? She was supposed to be the most powerful amongst them, avatar of the oldest sun, the first appointed to the Nebula, and she had run away. She had defied the very laws that were placed down before most of them were born into this society that governed the cosmos. They did not know the circumstances, or her reasons, nor did they know that the Nebula's time in power was supposed to be drawing to an end now that she and the other Trueborn were reaching maturity. They did not know, and would not believe her if she tried to tell them. Such was the nature of the Nebula's power.

She stepped forward. The people had been murmuring softly in their language, a language that sounded like earthen whale song. With each step the volume lessened, until all that could be heard was the chattering of distant birds, the rustle of clothing, and the chirping of insects. It seemed like an eternity before she reached the small staircase that led onto a patio of sorts, lined with imposing columns of alabaster white. Two people stood in front of a twelve-foot arched doorway, a moon whose name in Common she did not know, and her husband, Ione. The other moon, who was similar in appearance to Ione, though taller and rounder in the face bowed to his partner and said,

"Do not linger too long. She is expected soon."

"Thank you Tarza." Ione replied. His companion disappeared into the doorway. It was dark enough inside that she could only see a few feet. She took a deep breath, faltering in her resolution for a moment. She couldn't go through with this. It was too much. She didn't want to remember! But her friends back on Andromeda, and her brother, needed her, so she stepped up to Ione.

"Trance…" he said softly in Common, and then in their language, "I wish I didn't have to see you this way." He reached out his hands to her as she came up to him. She was shaking as she placed hers in his.

"They have called together the Council of Moons? Has the System of Planets been summoned as well?"

"They have, my love. I am to escort you, and then take my place on the Council."

"A full Triad. It's been ten million years since one was called. You know what this means Ione, don't you?" It was a comment more than a question. Ione held onto her hands tighter than before. His eyes bore into hers. She could see the fear in them.

"The Council would never agree, nor would the System." Trance shook her head. His words were hollow, and he was no fool. He didn't need her to tell him they were.

"The Council is made up of men and only exists so that the Lambent Kith can claim to be an advanced race in which every citizen is represented. The wishes of men have very little impact on the Nebula, and the planets are the weakest of the Kith. Their System is a courtesy, nothing more."

"Trance…" He didn't finish his sentence, but instead leaned in and kissed her forehead. It was a gentle and loving kiss, the warmth of it spread through her. It was hard to believe that just a short time ago neither he, nor she, knew who they were or what they were capable of. Her eyes filled with tears that silently slipped out one by one. The fact that they now remembered as if nothing had torn them apart in the first place made what she had to do now all the harder.

"Shh… Don't say anything," she said. She removed her hands from his and brought them to the level of her chest. She held them in front of her, palms flattened, facing towards Ione. Her eyes met his and she saw his face fall as what she was about to do dawned on him.

"No," he whispered. She could hardly find her voice to say what she must, and the tears, falling more frequently now, blurred her vision.

"I will either be dead, or dead to our people by the conclusion of this meeting. There is no other reason for a Triad to be called. If Tarn Vedra is to survive, and it must, our bond has to be broken before my punishment is dealt."

"I cannot," he insisted. Was he going to make her beg? This was already so hard.

"You must. Ione. There is still Saren, my second. Find her, for she is lost as we were, but you can find her. Bond with her and have many beautiful children. Make sure Tarn Vedra has a chance at surviving"

"Tarn Vedra needs the bonding of sun, moon, and planet."

"It can no longer have a sun. You must do this." Her composure was faltering. Reluctantly he brought up his hands and placed his palms against hers. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She could feel the eyes of her people on her, but she ignored them. She focused on the energy that passed between herself and Ione. When she found its focal point she opened her eyes. Above their hands floated a miniature sun and moon in synchronized orbit. She stared into his eyes as the area around their palms began to glow. The glow engulfed the miniatures and when it had dissipated they had begun to move in separate directions. "It is done," she whispered. Ione was silent for a moment. They stood there, palms pressed together, neither one sure of what to say, until Ione leaned in and kissed her tenderly on the lips. She returned his kiss, and when they separated, her tears glistened on his face. It was the last kiss they would ever share, she was sure of it.

"We must go," he said.

"I know." She composed herself as best she could and wiped her face with the sleeve of her garment.

She made peace with what she had just relived, accepted it as reality, and braced herself for the final step. Maybe then, she could go home.

AAAAAAAAAA

The room where her trial, if one could call it that, was to be held was a large, round room at the end of a long hallway that was lit only by torches. In sharp contrast, the room was brightly lit with the light filtering through a huge dome of stained glass. The picture depicted a large sun, with a moon and a planet on either side. It cast prisms that made everything seem surreal. The Nebula stood on a great, three-tiered, platform adjacent to the door, and lining the walls on either side were the Council of Moons, stoic and uniform in both clothing and color, and the System of Planets, looking varied and wild. Ione left her in the center of the room and took his place at the head of the Council. The entire Nebula was in true form. The courtesy of taking her form was not extended. There were three children amongst the group, their purple skin standing out against the red of the older adults, and the gold of the rest. The two oldest were her true sisters, Stella and Kara. Kara stood at the right side of the leader. She watched Trance with venom in her gaze, while Stella tried not to see.

Trance shook as she lowered herself into a deep curtsy. Even as she rose she kept her eyes towards the ground diffidently. In her long life she had disobeyed the Nebula on several occasions and was punished. Never in so severe a fashion, but she knew the routine.

"I have come before you to plead my case," she said in as strong a voice as she could muster. All these formalities were pointless. In a few minutes, none of them would matter.

"Trance Gemini," the leader, Arnella, began. She was an older woman with red-tinted skin and black hair done in the same fashion as Trance's, and every other sun there. Her red skin marked her as one of the more mature avatars. She was not the leader, per se, since the Nebula was supposed to exist in one mind, but she was their voice, "You have defied the Nebula on numerous occasions, refusing time and again to relinquish your individuality. You have committed the sin of individuality, and have lived amongst organics, accepting them, and treating them as your equals. You eccentricities were tolerated due to your station, but you have committed a crime far greater than that. Because of you, for the first time in the history of this universe, the Lambent Kith fought against each other, and one of us was lost. What have you to say for yourself?" The normal singsong quality of their language sounded piercing, like the grating of metal on metal, as her crimes were listed. Trance forced herself to keep her eyes down as she answered in a trembling voice,

"Mora was not one of us. She was the avatar of the Abyss. She deceived us all."

"Have you any proof of this?" Kara asked from beside the leader.

"Sister, you know I do not, but I would not lie."

"We would have known if her loyalties lay elsewhere. We are the Nebula, and our minds are as one," a sun by the name of Nyssa stated.

"I cannot prove to you that what I say is true. I can argue that our people have already turned against one of our own. What of Aurelia, why was she not protected?"

"We do not have to answer to you." Arnella said.

"Then settle my punishment and let us be done." Trance stated more bravely than she felt. The entire universe seemed to be falling apart around her as she was faced with the certainty of losing everything she had every known.

"Does the Council have anything to say?" Stella asked. Trance locked eyes with her youngest sister for only a moment. She could see the spark of Stella's individual personality lurking beneath the surface of her dark eyes. She seemed saddened, though it was hard to tell.

"Trance Gemini is the oldest and brightest sun, we find it hard to believe that she would lie about Mora's loyalties. In light of that, it is entirely possible that the Abyss designed everything. Her disobedience is all she should be punished for. In this were are of one mind." Ione said. His voice did not betray the events that had happened only a few minutes before. He was one with the Council and that gave him strength.

"And the System?" Stella asked. A blue planet with brown curls mingling with green spoke in place of Saren, who would have been at the head. The system was two short without Saren and her brother's lost wife Terra.

"We are of the same mind as the Council. She has been disobedient, but a simple punishment would suffice for that. There is no need for the Triad. This was the Abyss's doing, so why risk the universe by taking away its one true light?"

The room fell deathly silent. Trance risked looking up for a moment. The moons and planets looked defeated despite their strong words. They were no more than advisors for the Nebula, they knew their place, and that the Nebula had already made up its mind.

"Trance Gemini, the words of our associates has been weighed, as have your crimes. Since you can offer no proof that the Abyss was responsible for the fighting that ensued, and the subsequent death of Maura, we find you guilty. You have always found comfort and solace in the organics. Now you may do so as one of them. Your crimes warrant an immediate death, but you are one of us, and we will not take your life." Trance had expected this. She expected to be upset, to feel lost, confused, empty, and afraid. What she hadn't expected was the sudden burst of anger that awoke within her, a well-hidden and slumbering monster, that was now clawing its way out into the open. Her head shot up and she met Arnella's eyes, all pretenses at humbleness gone. In that instant she understood something, a terrible truth that she would rather not admit to. Maura wasn't the only one in the Nebula working for the Abyss. This must have been his plan from the beginning, though now he wasn't alive to see it realized.

"You have no idea what you are doing!" she shouted, "The Paradine and the Ancient Vedrans had a plan to bring peace to this universe. One plan, one perfect possible future. Most of you are betraying your very creators and the rest," she now addressed the three children, "Kara, Stella, Nanda, you betray out ancestors who were rescued from a dying universe and brought here to join with the suns of this universe in order to make sure it would never fall!"

"Silence!" The collective shout of the Nebula was deafening and harsh. Trance took a step backwards from the force of it, but she was not cowed. The air around her began to shimmer and she felt her connection with her sun begin to fade away. It was painful, more painful than she could ever have imagined. She felt weak, and dizzy, but she did not cry out. She would not give them the satisfaction. She would not admit to what they were doing. She could hardly stand by the time they were finished, but she forced her back to remain straight.

"I hope you can live with the blood of billions on your hands," she said softly. She looked at her sisters. Kara's face betrayed nothing, but a tear rolled down young Stella's cheek. _I feel for you, little sister,_ Trance thought.

The world faded away and Trance was surprised to find herself in a room of swirling blue with a bonsai tree on a small dais in the center instead of the darkness Castor had taken her out of. This was her mental space, the area she came to in order to make sense of her visions, or simply clear her mind after a trying day. This was someplace she could easily leave. She took a deep, shaky breath and then collapsed into the sobs she hadn't let come earlier. Living through the events of the day once was trying enough, but twice was something else entirely.

She cried long and hard, allowing herself to feel the pain she'd denied. In one day she had lost her identity, her husband, and a future whose importance most people could not even begin to fathom. It was not fair, and she did not want to go on, but she had to. What did Harper once tell her, "When life gives you lemons, you make lemon margaritas and get drunk enough to laugh in life's face." They were words of wisdom from an unlikely source.

After a while her tears slowed, and then stopped all together. She stood up and placed her hands on the dais. She could hear voices now, faint, and unintelligible, but she knew whom they belonged to. One belonged to Dylan. It was a comforting tone. Beka's voice was there too, and surprisingly, Rhade's. She could also hear Doyle and Rommie, though some of the time is sounded as if they were just speaking near her, and not to her, especially once when both voices carried a twinge of annoyance. Above all the other voices, though, she could hear Harper's. It was there more often than the others, and steadier. She took a deep breath and listened harder, using his voice as a guide. It was time she started learning how to make margaritas.

AAAAAAAA

Harper sat beside Trance's bed as he had every waking moment of spare time he'd had for three weeks. She was pale, and very thin, since Rommie was still having difficulty figuring out the exact cocktail of nutrients Trance's now organic body needed to sustain itself. The AI had said that Trance didn't seem too malnourished, and hypothesized that what Trance needed to maintain her weight was solid food, something she could not ingest while unconscious. She couldn't really afford to lose any more weight, though.

He held a small, very warm, hand in his own and talked to her. He talked to her about anything he could think of. He told her stories and legends he'd heard in his childhood, gave her detailed reports on the repairs he'd been conducting onboard Andromeda and the Eureka Maru, and even explained to her how each of her plants was doing, though he was pretty sure he'd botched most of their names. His voice was hoarse from talking so much, but he didn't stop.

He had been there for a few hours already. It was late, and most crewmembers, save those with night watches, were already in bed. His eyes were beginning to droop and he knew he would have to succumb to exhaustion soon enough, but he wasn't ready to leave just yet.

"Come on Trance, wake up," he pleaded when he could think of nothing else to say. "Dylan says that if you don't wake up soon, he's going to send you down to Terazed to be under the care of a specialist in alien medicine. No one wants to send you there because you'll become a lab rat, but he doesn't think he has any other choice anymore." Harper was still a little bitter from the announcement Dylan has tagged onto the end of their senior staff meeting. He wanted to be mad at the captain, but he couldn't, because Dylan was doing it out of love for Trance, but it didn't seem right to send her away. Trance remained silent. He sighed and unconsciously moved his thumb around in circles on the back of her hand. Out of desperation he said, "Okay Trance, here's the deal. If you open you eyes right now, I promise I won't ever make sexual advances towards you again." He closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. This was hopeless.

"Don't make promises you can't keep," someone whispered so softly he could barely here it. It took a moment to register what he'd heard, and by then the previously comatose girl was coughing. He opened his eyes and sprang up.

"Trance!" he exclaimed, squeezing her hand tightly. "You're awake. How do you feel?"

"Not so good," she replied weakly between coughs. Harper quickly located the pitcher of water Doyle had left for him and poured a cup. He let go of her hand and placed one hand under her head, tilting it upward. With the other hand he placed the cup to her lips. He poured the water into her mouth slowly, and she swallowed a few mouthfuls before he took the cup away. Her coughing slowed down.

"You're still pretty sick, but welcome back to the land of the living." He was all smiles for the first time in weeks. He couldn't take his eyes away from hers. Though they were a bit glazed and unfocused, they were beautiful. He'd forgotten how dark they were, and how lovely.

"I decided to make margaritas," she said softly. He was in the process of putting the cup down and stopped midway, wrinkling his brow. Did Rommie say anything about a chance of brain damage? He knew that in humans, a high fever over long periods of time could cause brain damage, but Andromeda hadn't said anything. Why was Trance talking about margaritas?

"Trance?" His tone was placating and implied the question he didn't want to ask. The poor thing had just woken up and didn't need him asking her if she'd lost a few marbles while she was out.

"You know, Harper. You told me..." She closed her eyes tightly together and took a couple of deep breaths before opening them again. She was in pain, which meant he needed to get Rommie or Doyle in here soon. "It is something about life and lemons," she finished. The sentence didn't exactly follow where it started, but who could blame her. She'd been asleep for three weeks. He laughed, suddenly understanding what she had meant. She wasn't crazy after all.

"Lemon margaritas," he stated out loud, mostly for his own benefit.

"Yeah," she murmured sleepily. Her eyes were drifting shut again. She yawned and blinked a few times as if trying to stay awake. He gently caressed her face and said,

"It's okay." Andromeda had warned him that when she did wake up she would probably fall asleep soon after. She was still fighting the remnants of the virus and needed the healing benefits of a natural sleep. She let her eyes close. Andromeda appeared on a screen on the other side of her bed.

"Harper, I was monitoring her life signs. Rommie is on her way up."

"Thanks." He sank back down into the chair beside Trance's bed. Her eyes were closed again, but her face had taken on a new look. There was life in her again. He smiled and chuckled to himself. He couldn't really figure out why except that two words stuck in his mind: lemon margaritas.


	6. Dangerous Politics

Author's Note: This chapter is going to be pretty long. I had an unbelievably hard time writing it, but here it is. I know there are people reading, so if you could please review, even if it is just a couple of words to let me know if you like it or not, I would be most appreciative. It makes the hard chapters, like this one, a little bit easier to write. Also, a lot of this was inspired by Robert Hewitt Wolfe's "Coda", a story the illustrates his original vision for the show before he was fired midway season 2. If you want to look at it type "Andromeda Coda" into Yahoo! or Google and you should find it. It's a great read.

Chapter 6: Dangerous Politics

"Hey Harper," Trance said, her voice barely above a whisper. Harper quickly removed his nose from the manual he'd been reading, took his feet off of her bed where he'd been resting them in a reclining position, and leaned forward to talk to her. She had been out of her coma for two days now, though she'd slept through most of it. He didn't spend his life on Med-Deck like he had during her three-week coma, but he made it a point to visit for a bit before his shift and a couple of hours after, even if she was sound asleep. Judging by the tiny smile on her face, she didn't mind.

"Good morning, sleeping beauty." She didn't answer, but instead smiled a little bigger. She looked better than she had yesterday. Her eyes were more focused, and the color had returned to her cheeks. He thought that she might be sparkling more, too, but it was hard to tell. Sparkly was sparkly. "Do you want anything?"

"Some water, please." He happily obliged, pouring her a small cupful. She pushed herself up against the triangular pillow until her upper body was slightly raised, not quite sitting, but not laying down either. He handed her the cup and she took it from him. Her eyes watched him as she sipped the water slowly. She handed the cup back a couple minutes later. "You look tired," she said in a somewhat stronger voice. Harper shrugged his shoulders. They were still finding problems caused by their battle with the Magog even though it was almost a month later. Trance hadn't asked about what had happened while she was out, she hadn't really been awake enough to, but Andromeda had warned him not to add any undue stress by giving her too much information about the state of the universe.

"Andromeda keeps me busy. You know her. She's a slave driver."

"I'm sure." Trance fiddled with one of the buttons on her pajamas. She was wearing a pair of loose fitting, plain green pajamas that buttoned up the top. She looked much younger and gentler than she did in her usual clothing. She took a deep breath and halted, as if she wanted to say something but wasn't sure if she should, and then asked, "Did we fight the Magog?" Harper wasn't sure what to say. Why couldn't she have asked Dylan, Rommie, or Beka? Exactly how much information was considered enough information to cause undue stress? He thought about it for a second and figured that not knowing would probably be worst than the truth since there was nothing more stressful than impending doom.

"Yeah, right after you, uh… got sick."

"We won?" Her eyes pleaded with him to say yes. Harper took her hand, and gently squeezed it. Her skin was hot, but not scorching as it had been when she was feverish. He gave her what he considered to be a confident, dashing, and award winning smile to put her at ease.

"It was close. I didn't think we were gonna make it, but, yeah, we won." She relaxed and gave his hand a grateful squeeze in return. She didn't pull away afterwards. Her hand against his felt strange and unfamiliar. He realized that it had been a long time since they'd felt comfortable enough with one another to invade each other's personal bubbles. He thought he'd lost Trance once already, and had been too dense to realize that she'd never really left him. The threat of actually losing her, permanently, was an eye opener. He was determined to try and make things work. They had been best friends once. Hopefully it wasn't too late to be best friends again.

"How did we win?" That was the question of the century, one he didn't actually have an answer to. He wrinkled his brow, trying to come up with something to tell her that made some sort of sense. He could feel her studying him in the same way that used to make him think she could read his mind. He still wasn't sure, to this day, if that had been one of her powers. She still talked to him, though, so probably not.

"Funny story, that," he finally answered, "You see, we were fighting it nice and hard and then it decided to be a good little Magog ship and just sort of blew up all by itself." She looked confused. He shifted in his seat and shrugged. What could she expect from him? He hadn't been on Command.

"What do you mean it just blew up?"

"I don't know, babe. I was too busy trying to find something to throw other than rocks in the Weapons Control Room when it happened," he explained, "The fleet, all 83 of us, had taken out most of the worlds, but it was still kicking our collective butts, and then it just blew up. Dylan said it looked like the sun went supernova, just like that." He snapped his fingers to illustrate his point. She gasped, and he said, "Hey, I'm all for the Magog offing themselves."

"No…" she said, sounding horrified. Crap! Undue stress. Really undue since he couldn't figure out why she was so upset in the first place. Man, if Rommie found out she was going to kick him out for good.

"Trance, we won. There is nothing to be upset about. The Magog are gone. If you were out of that bed I'd throw a party." Not that they hadn't had a celebration, of course. However, with Trance down here, the loss of Earth, and all the casualties from the battle, it had been a smidgen less fun than a wake. He also didn't tell her that he'd been suspicious about the mysterious explosion himself. He wanted her to calm down, after all.

"Harper, I need to talk to Dylan," she said in her patent 'I know something you don't know and I am going to keep it a secret' voice. He tried to keep his face from falling. Of course she wanted to talk to Dylan. Dylan was Captain Terrific and it was more than clear from the past couple of years that he was her new best friend. Dylan knew more about her and her past than he ever had. She told him everything, why should today be any different?

"Would you like me to get him for you?" the Andromeda hologram asked, appearing at the foot of Trance's bed. Harper had stopped being shocked that Andromeda seemed to overhear everything. After all, on this ship, the old saying 'the walls have ears' wasn't too far from the truth.

"Yes, please." Andromeda nodded and shot him a sharp, motherly, look that said 'I told you no undue stress' before disappearing. Harper frowned and stood up, taking his hand out of hers.

"I guess I'll get out of here." He tried to keep his voice cheerful, but it must not have been very successful because Trance reached out and grabbed his wrist as he turned to leave. Her grip was very weak, but the fact that she'd reached out to him kept him there. She locked eyes with his. They were dark and deep. Her expression was unreadable.

"You can stay," she said. It was only three short, one-syllable, words, but they meant so much. He returned to his seat and gave her a genuinely grateful smile. She returned it with a small smile of her own. She still looked tense. He reached out and grabbed her hand again. This time it didn't feel quite as strange. He could stay, and that was an amazing thing.

AAAAAAAA

Dylan wasn't expecting Harper to be on Med Deck when he arrived. Andromeda had popped in just as he was climbing out of the shower and told him that Trance was awake and wanted to talk to him right away, it had something to do with the Worldship. He'd dressed as quickly as possible and headed down. When Trance said she needed to talk right away, it was usually pretty important, and something she generally wanted as few people to know as possible, hence his surprise at seeing his young engineer at her bedside, holding her hand and chattering away cheerfully. Come to think of it, he wasn't exactly expecting Harper to look this cheerful, either. That was almost as much of a shock as finding him here.

"How are you feeling, Trance?" he asked, announcing his presence. He took a few large steps towards her bedside. She was looking better at least. He was glad. For a moment he'd been afraid that he would have to send her to a specialist, and the last thing he wanted was for Trance to be off the ship where he couldn't keep an eye on her.

"Better. But, I am concerned." He stopped beside her bed and rested a hand just above her head. He looked at Harper, but the boy didn't make any move to leave. Trance didn't seem to mind his presence, so Dylan dropped the issue. Her voice wasn't very strong, and there were shadows under her eyes, but she was definitely more alert than she had been when he'd visited her the day before.

"What are you concerned about?" She gave him a small smile.

"You may want to grab a chair. I have to explain a lot." Dylan looked around the room and located a silver and black stool in one of the corners. He grabbed it, dragged it over, and sat down. Trance had a cup of water in her hand when he returned. She took a drink and handed it to Harper who put it away.

"I think my people were responsible for destroying the Worldship," she said. Harper looked shocked. Dylan nodded, not at all surprised. It would take a tremendous force to completely destroy the Magog Worldship, and he only knew one species capable of that much power.

"The thought had crossed my mind," he replied, "But why?" She gave a lopsided and sympathetic smile and looked back and forth between her two visitors.

"That is where I have to go back to the beginning."

"The beginning of what?" Dylan asked.

"The very beginning." Harper leaned forward and studied Trance skeptically as if she was one of his projects and there might be a glitch in her programming. Her eyes followed him a bit uncomfortably. Dylan didn't blame the boy. It was hard to imagine that the girl between them, who didn't look a day over 25, could possibly know about the very beginning.

"Are we talking the 'In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth' beginning?" Harper asked, leaning back again. Trance relaxed and nodded.

"In a manner of speaking. Whether God created this all or not, I do not know. If there is a God or a Divine, it is beyond my understanding. What I do know is that in the beginning there was Heaven, and there was nothing. But, not really nothing, since there were other Universes with life in them, but those won't come up until later." She spoke with the air of someone settling in to tell a long story. "Heaven was a place where everything, matter and energy were bound together very tightly. It was a place of harmony where nothing ever happened. It was a place ruled by Love."

"Love?" Dylan asked. Trance nodded.

"Yes, Love, with a capital L. Love enjoyed the peace and the harmony. Love was responsible for keeping everything together, but what Love didn't expect was for another force to take over."

"Like the opposite of love, hate?" Harper asked.

"No, hate is the other side of the same coin. This was something completely different. It was boredom. Some of the matter and energy grew tired of the peace and harmony. To them, there was no life without chaos. Without pain and suffering, there could be not joy. The matter and energy that felt this way began to gather together, but Love did not like this. Love wanted Heaven to remain the way it was. Before long, there was a war.

"The war was devastating, and in the end, the matter and energy that fought so hard to be free, blew up Heaven. Humans call it the big bang, and it was. It was beautiful. The matter and energy that destroyed Heaven began drawing whatever they could towards themselves until they began to burn, and one by one the stars began to appear. They burned so brightly!" Trance had a magnificent smile on her face as she explained the origin of the stars, her people. Harper seemed transfixed by her words. However, none of this seemed new to Dylan. This was his first time hearing it, he knew that, but he felt like he'd known it all along. She paused and Harper seemed to realize something.

"Wait, if the stars were the ones that blew up Heaven, and you are err… were, a star, doesn't that make you the devil?" She gave him a significant look and said,

"I had a pointy tail."

"No way. You're way to cute to be a devil." She laughed, and Dylan had to chuckle as well.

"To tell you the truth, the tail has nothing to do with the stars, or being a Lucifer. Yes Harper that is the Human name for us. It means light bringer. The Tarn Vedran sun and I are not exactly one and the same, but I will get to that later also." Her voice had taken on tone usually reserved for professors in a lecture hall. Dylan made himself more comfortable, sensing that this could take a while. "Well, Love didn't like what had happened. He didn't want this universe of chaos, where life was popping up in every corner, to exist, so he began to collapse the universe in on itself."

"This happened over and over again. It was the same dance, the same steps, each time. Love grew more and more spiteful each time, and soon Love began to resemble Hate a lot more. Finally, he manifested himself in the Universe as well. He was given a name, too. The Abyss.

"The cycle went on, although now with the Abyss manifested inside, it moved more quickly. The Lucifers were at a loss. They could not stop the Abyss. All they could do was make sure that each time the universe collapsed, they could create it again. Then, this last time, something changed." She stopped speaking and motioned for the cup of water she'd had earlier. Harper, in a bit of a daze, handed it to her. She took a long drink before giving it back. She coughed, something she'd been doing less and less of as the days went by, and then adjusted her body until she was laying down more.

"Are you all right?" Dylan asked, realizing that she was still recovering and this was probably taking a lot out of her. He wanted to hear the rest, but only if she were up to it, even if it meant that later she wouldn't be so refreshingly open.

"I'm okay. I have kept this from you far too long."

"What was different this time?" asked Harper. Trance took a deep breath and began again.

"You remember that I told you in the beginning there were other universes with life in them?" Harper nodded, and Dylan did as well. "There are actually many, many universes out there. Most don't resemble our own, but some do. Some universes are bursting with energy and life, some are dead, and others are dying. These universes are not connected and it is almost impossible to travel between them, but sometimes a species advances enough in technology to make it possible.

"You have to understand that even though the birth and death of a universe happens in cycles, the same planets, species, and life are not reborn every time. In the cosmic scheme of things, life is insignificant. In one of these dying universes, one species realized that if they wanted their species to go on, they needed to find somewhere else to live. So, the Ancient Vedrans traveled from their universe into ours near the beginning of its eternal dance." Harper had poured himself a glass of water and was in the process of drinking when Trance said the last part. He sputtered and choked, eliciting a worried, and somewhat amused, expression from Trance.

"So you're saying the Vedrans, the ones who created the commonwealth, had enough technology to move between universes?" Dylan asked, finding it hard to believe. Sure, they were traveling the stars while Humans were figuring out that if you rubbed two sticks together you could create fire, and they had created the Paradine who could travel between space and time, but he had never seen any indication that they could go from this universe into another.

"No, not at all. The Ancient Vedrans seeded the Vedrans you know. There is some sort of cosmic law that says organic beings cannot exist for long in any universe other than the one they originated from. There are some exceptions. Creatures who can exist as energy can make the move if they are compatible with the energy in their new universe, and any species can leave the blueprints for life and hope that they become something."

"So you're saying the Ancient Vedrans just walked in, dropped off some sort of program to make people just like them, and went back to their dying universe? Didn't they know that our universe was doomed, too?" Harper asked with an incredulous air.

"It's not quite that simple, Harper. The Ancient Vedrans knew that the stars were sentient, and found a way to communicate. They were horrified when they discovered that the Abyss was destroying life and that it was only a matter of time before everything collapsed in on itself. They had been searching for the universe in which their blueprint would have the best chance of taking, and they were running out of time.

"Some of the Ancient Vedrans went back to their universe and began to work on a solution. They knew that if the Abyss could be defeated, this universe would last indefinitely, or at least longer than any they had come across. They found the solution in another species that occupied their universe, an ally of theirs. They were called…" and here she made a sound that reminded Dylan of the whales he'd seen in captivity as a boy. He'd heard her people speak before, but it was still surprising that something so alien could actually be a language. Harper raised his eyebrows,

"Sorry, I didn't catch that," he said, ever the sarcastic one. Trance laughed.

"The best translation I can give you in Common is the Lambent Kith. I never lied to you, Seamus, when I said you wouldn't be able to pronounce the name of my people. The Lambent Kith could exist in both organic form, and as energy, the same sort of energy that everything in the universe of the Lucifers was made up of. It was so much the same that the Vedrans realized that the Kith could bond with the celestial bodies of the new universe, including the suns.

"At first the Lucifers were against the bonding, but they began to see the benefits. The Lambent Kith were able to see probabilities. The Lucifer's quickly realized that with the energy boosts from their bonds with celestial bodies, they could even live through them. The Kith that were bonded with moons and planets would not be nearly as powerful, and wouldn't be able to see as much, or as far into possible futures, but those who bonded with the Lucifers would be very powerful indeed. It was the edge they were looking for. The Abyss couldn't see into the future. The Lucifers agreed to bond with the Kith and use their organic forms as avatars. They became one consciousness.

"There is a lot more involved, but my people came over and bonded with the celestial bodies of this universe, and in time, a society much like the original society of the Lambent Kith with an Empress and class distinctions developed. The Empress was bonded with the largest of the suns, and she watched over a newly formed planet where the Vedrans planted their DNA, hoping that a society as great as theirs would grow from it. Then they left."

"Trance, that's amazing, but it doesn't explain why your people would destroy the Magog Worldship for us. Especially since they were obviously working for the Magog. I don't see how any of this is relevant." Trance frowned a bit.

"It is relevant, because of what happened next. It is actually something that you would be in a better position to explain than I if you could remember your heritage. Most of this happened before I was even old enough to change into organic form.

"You see the Lambent Kith still weren't from this universe. They could exist here for a time, a couple billion years maybe, but not indefinitely, so in order to keep their society going and to fight the Abyss, they decided to have children. The Empress already had a daughter, but her child was also from the other universe, so she conceived again in hopes of producing an heiress. She gave birth to twins, one male, and one female. The Lambent Kith celebrated the birth of the girl who would lead them in defeating the Abyss, but then the Paradine appeared." She locked eyes with Dylan as if he should know the next chapter in her story. He shrugged his shoulders. He still couldn't remember, and part of him never wanted to.

"Why?" Harper asked. She shifted her eyes and he felt a sense of relief. It was horrible knowing that there was an entire side of himself that he didn't yet have access to, and though Trance meant well, he didn't enjoy the reminders.

"They said that the children who were born wouldn't be adults for several billion years, and that even though the one who would rule would have the wisdom of the Lucifers, she would still have the maturity of a child. All the children would. They would be playful and innocent, and eventually, the Abyss would destroy them. The only solution was to create avatars from the DNA of the Lambent Kith who would mature faster.

"And that is how the Lambent Kith Nebula was formed. They were to rule, advised by the Council of Moons and System of Planets, over the universe until the heiress was old enough to take the throne. The heiress, her two sisters, and her first cousin became a part of the Nebula, which was only made up of female suns. Their betrothed would either be a part of the Council of Moons, or System of Planets, and they would all work to defeat the Abyss. The natural born children are called the Trueborn, and there are very few on the ruling councils.

"But something went terribly wrong. Somehow the darkness infected the Nebula and they began to kill off the Paradine before they could come back and fix things. The Abyss was controlling them, for a while, but the darkness did not dissipate when he was killed. They were made too strong and no one thought to be worried because they were supposed to represent light. All but one of the Paradine are gone, and now, so is the heiress. Her sister's and her cousin have been manipulated into believing that they are one with the Nebula, which was never the way it was supposed to be." Trance's voice quivered. Her eyes were watery, but she did not let the tears fall. Poor Trance. He used to chide her for giving up hope, or running away, but he didn't really take the time to notice exactly how brave she was. She didn't say it, but he knew who the heiress was. She used to be, after all, the oldest and brightest sun. He reached out and patted her hand. She blinked a few times to get rid of the unshed tears and took a deep breath.

"The Nebula now wants power. They want to rule the universe and bend it to their will, and there is no one powerful enough to stop them. They have eliminated their obstacles, and with the destruction of the Magog, the last traces of the Abyss. They are their own power, and I fear they might be even worst than the Abyss. I mean, they rule our suns." Everyone fell silent. It was a lot to digest. They had just defeated the Abyss, and as usual, something bigger and badder took his place. 'It's never easy' didn't even seem big enough to cover this.

"Um… Trance. I know you've already told us way more than I ever dreamed you would, but could you tell me one last thing?" She gave a small nod. "Can you tell me what happened to the heiress?" Harper sounded like someone who had a hypothesis and was afraid to have it proven. Trance closed her eyes and took a few breaths. She looked so incredibly sad, and Dylan didn't know what he could do for her. Finally she said,

"She became organic, like her friends."

AAAAAAAA

Rhade walked down the corridor towards the Med Deck carrying a flexi in one hand. He was preparing to leave Andromeda to spend an unspecified amount of time with his wife and children. He'd already said his goodbyes to Beka, Dylan, and the androids that he'd come to think of as of they were just as organic as him. That left two crewmembers, and the first was descending the ladder than led to Med Deck at this very moment, a dazed look on his face.

"Hey kid," he said. Harper stopped.

"So you headin' out?" the boy asked casually.

"Yeah, I just wanted to say goodbye. Is Trance awake?"

"Doyle just kicked Dylan and I out, but you can try your luck." Harper seemed only half there, which granted, wasn't all that unusual, except that he wasn't his energetic self either. The boy's problems, though, were not his own, and he knew Harper would appreciate it more if he kept his nose out of them. They had a tenuous relationship, one in which they accepted each other for who they were, and Harper tried his best not to remember that he was Nietzchean. However, he did have something that would take the kids mind off of whatever was bothering him, though it might cause more problems in the long run.

"I think I will. Here, I thought you might be interested in seeing this." He handed the flexi to Harper and the boy began reading it. His eyes widened and he muttered,

"No way," and then louder, "the Earth resistance. This is their code, their mark."

"I thought you'd want to see that."

"Umm… listen. It was nice knowing you. Have fun at home, be nice to the kiddies, and give you wife a big kiss. I gotta go!" The boy practically ran in the opposite direction. Rhade allowed an amused smile to grace his face and then proceeded up to Med Deck to say goodbye to someone who was even more of a mystery to him than Harper, but not by much.

AAAAAAAAA

Thanks for reading. I hope the length wasn't too bed. Please review, as I said before, it helps a lot.


	7. Hope

Chapter 7: Hope

Trance sat alone on her bunk in the Eureka Maru with her legs crossed in front of her and her hands folded neatly between them trying desperately to remember the dream that had produced the tears that now streamed unchecked down her face. The lights were dim, and a flexi lay abandoned near the foot of her bunk still turned on to the colorful diagram she had been reading before her body betrayed her and she fell asleep. Trance closed her eyes and tried to recall the images that had haunted her nap, but like the ghosts that haunted ships and homes, they remained illusive. All she could see behind her closed lids was darkness, and all she could feel was a pervasive sense of loss and sorrow, that clenched her stomach and caused her heart to ache; no doubt the source of the hot tears she could not stop from falling.

The physical malaise she felt in addition to her precarious emotional state was a none-to-pleasant reminder that though Andromeda had released her to her quarters and the Eureka Maru, she was still not well, and needed to focus her mind and calm down, or run the risk of a relapse. As a physician of sorts, she knew better than most that both physical and emotional stress was detrimental to recovering patients, so identifying the source of her upset and dealing with it was key. Unfortunately, she was not accustomed to nightmares that were merely dreams, and could not be remembered in the waking world.

She opened her eyes and began to pick at the leg of the black sweat pants she'd borrowed from Beka this morning. Her arms were bare since she had opted to wear a purple tank top she'd found stored amongst the possessions of her younger self instead of her usual long sleeved wear. They shimmered in the dimness and she focused on the way her sparkles caught the light, making the room seem a little brighter. Even in darkness there was light, or the potential for it. Her dreams were filled with darkness, but she could not forget the light. She was no longer Lambent Kith, but her skin still shined like the sun she had been connected to for so many billions of years; the light of the universe.

Trance closed her eyes again, and this time when she saw the darkness she imagined a small flame, like that of a candle, in front of her. It flickered before her and its light encompassed her and warmed her. She then imagined the voices of her friends filling the void. Slowly the sense of loss began to fade, and with it some of the sorrow. _I am not alone_, she thought. _My dreams are not real and I must not dwell on them. Though there is darkness all around me, I must focus on the light. It can be found in all things. I am the light; it is within me. It is in all that I love, and as long as it is there, the darkness cannot touch me_. The sound of distant footsteps on metal deck-plates tore her from her reflections, but when she opened her eyes her tears had gone.

"Hello?" she called out. The footsteps could have belonged to any of her friends checking up on her. She had been released earlier this morning. Beka had walked with her to the Maru, helped her find something more comfortable to wear aside from pajamas so she could move through the halls if she desired, and in general made sure she would be all right on her own, marveling the entire time that Trance didn't want to recuperate in her fancy, and decidedly more comfortable, quarters onboard Andromeda. Since then, Rommie, Doyle, and Dylan had all been in to make sure she was all right. It was sweet, but the constant inquiries into her state of being were also a bit irritating, as if they did not trust her to tell them if she were feeling worst.

"Trance?" came Harper's questioning voice. His footsteps quickened, and within a moment he was standing before her, looking a little worst for wear. There were bags under his eyes, and stubble on his chin. His blue tropical print over-shirt was only slightly less wrinkled than the white t-shirt it covered, and his hair, as usual was spiked in every direction. "Andromeda told me she'd let you go, but I didn't know you were on the Maru. I thought you would be in your quarters."

"Beka brought me here this morning," she replied, "You did not come and see me yesterday." A guilty expression crossed Harper's tired features. He tapped a hand against his thigh for a moment before plopping down on Vexpeg's old bunk across from hers. He went down like someone carrying a huge weight on his shoulders. He did not say anything at first so she studied him. She could feel his eyes on her.

"I'm sorry Trance. I really am. I know how it has to look after you told me so much about yourself. It has nothing to do with you, honest." His eyes pleaded with her to accept his words. Her acceptance was not only important to him, but it was clear that he needed it.

"I know," she said. They were two simple words, spoken sincerely, and they made a real difference. Some of the invisible weight on his shoulders lifted. "I was worried when you did not come, so I asked Beka. She said something had come up and you were spending a lot of time in the core, but she did not seem to know the details."

"No, I guess she doesn't," was his cryptic reply. The silence that filled the room was thick with the words left unsaid hanging like helium balloons in the air. Trance picked at the sweatpants again. When she was younger, she had developed the habit of moving all the time. She had outgrown it for a while, but the compulsive need to keep moving, even if it was just a small motion, had resurfaced on Seefra. A lot of the personality she had thought lost forever when she came back from the future had come back on Seefra, and the terrible future she had lived through seemed more and more like a distant memory with each passing day. Perhaps that was why Harper suddenly felt more comfortable around her again, or perhaps he, like her, was reaching out to the only person who could even remotely understand the turmoil inside.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" she asked.

"If you tell me why you were crying," he replied, motioning towards her face. She didn't have to see to know that her eyes were swollen and red, and that she looked just as disheveled as him. She had pulled her long hair back into a ponytail before settling in to read, too tired to f of it was over one shoulder, while the other remained where it belonged, and she could feel loosened strands sticking to her cheeks where tears had matted them. She weighed his terms and decided they were fair.

"It was nothing really, just a nightmare. I don't even know what it was about. I hadn't even meant to fall asleep. I was reading." Harper leaned over and snatched her flexi. He was perpetually curious, and she did not make the effort to slap away his hand, or discourage him in any way as she might have in the past. He knew most everything about her now, a little more would not hurt.

"No wonder you fell asleep if your pleasure reading is medical charts." She was about to point out, somewhat childishly she had to admit, that he read engineering schematics recreationally when he realized exactly whose chart he was working his way through. "You're studying yourself?" She shrugged.

"Everything is different now. I can do brain surgery on species I have never seen before, but I don't know anything about my own body. I don't know what can make me sick, or how much to eat, or even how much sleep I need. I have fallen asleep twice today. The first time in one of my hammocks, so I moved in here, and every time…"

"You wake up from a nightmare." Harper finished. She nodded and lifted a hand to brush the hair off her cheeks, which had started to itch.

"They just started last night. I think I was too sick to have them before. I can not even remember when I wake up, it just feels… it feels…" She didn't know how to finish. She didn't have to.

"It feels like everything and everyone you love are gone, and there is no way to get them back." His voice was soft and full of emotion. She let her gaze fall on him, but he averted his eyes so she could not see the emotions that were no doubts fighting for control. His tired stance took on a new meaning. There was only one way Harper could have described her feelings so clearly. He too was having the same sort nightmares, and they were keeping him up at night. It occurred to her that they could both be manifesting symptoms of Acute Traumatic Stress Disorder, which could easily turn into Post Traumatic if some sort of stress management plan wasn't implemented. She would have to keep her eyes on Harper. Maybe helping him out would help her. It was possible. Anything was possible.

"Oh Harper…"

"Don't worry about it, Trance. I've had nightmares all my life." Harper picked up a pillow and set it between the wall and him and leaned against it. His eyes finally met hers. It seemed to her that he'd aged about fifteen years in the last month, and about five of those had been put on in the past couple of days. How anyone could live their entire life with nightmares like these and still be as personable and outgoing as Harper was a mystery to Trance. He had always accused her of being an enigma, but he never really understood that he was just as much a mystery to her.

"How do you deal with it?" she asked. She had given up on picking at her pants and reached for a pillow. She hugged it to herself lengthwise and rested her chin on the top. Harper, who seemed to suffer from the same deficiency as her in the stillness department tapped the flexi he still held in one hand against his thigh. He pursed his lips and closed his eyes, deep in thought. She watched him patiently. A small, wistful smile crossed his lips and he opened his eyes.

"I remember Rev; 'my pain belongs to the Divine, it is like air, it is like water,'" He did a pretty good impression of Rev's voice, "I don't know if there is a Divine or not, but it couldn't hurt me to give away my pain, right?"

"No, I suppose not. I try to remember the light, but it is so hard. I wish Rev were here. He said many wise things." Harper nodded and Trance shifted her weight a bit to make herself more comfortable.

"_You_ say a lot of wise things. Usually to Dylan, but sometimes I getta hear them, too. We'd all be lost without you." He said the last part after a brief pause. Trance forced a smile.

"It is most certainly the other way around. I would especially be lost without you, the knight in shining armor who came to my rescue." She had not told him yet how grateful she was that he had come to see her in her little closet nearly a month earlier, how grateful she was that he had saved her life. She was sure now that she would have died before Castor had a chance to help her if Harper hadn't gotten her to medical where Rommie could stabilize her. She'd had to fight in her mind, but without a body it would have been pointless. Harper gave her one of his patent 'I'm about to flirt' smiles, and it almost reached his eyes.

"Seamus Harper is never one to leave a beautiful princess in distress." He had chosen his words innocently enough, playing off the analogy she'd already set, but they hit Trance like a Point Singularity Weapon. Her true name, translated into common, meant Fire Princess. It was her name, her title, and her destiny, or at least it used to be.

"I am not a princess," she whispered, looking down at her clasped hands, "Not anymore." She didn't look at Harper to see if he'd realized his mistake, but a moment later she heard rustling and then felt someone sit down beside her on the bunk. Harper's arm curled around her shoulder in a comforting gesture.

"I'm sorry, Trance. I didn't think… I mean after everything you told me the other day I should have… You know, I used to call you a princess all the time. I didn't know I was right." She moved her eyes without turning her head until she could see him in her peripheral vision. His hand was warm against her bare shoulder, and it felt good to share physical contact with someone. People often underestimated the power of a friendly touch.

"It's not your fault, Seamus. I should be less sensitive." He gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"I think you have a right to be." They fell silent for a moment. Harper had managed to get a lock of her hair between his fingers and absentmindedly played with it, causing her scalp to tingle. Before Seefra, she probably would have made an excuse to leave the room as quickly as possible at a touch from Harper so innocently intimate, or at the very least detached herself from him. Dylan had been the touchiest of the crew, and Beka would occasionally wrap an arm around her shoulder, or give her a pat on the back, but there was a sort of unspoken agreement between she and Harper that anything resembling intimate would remain on the back burner. She had her reasons for keeping him at arm's length, but she made no move to get away from him now. Instead, she found a way to keep the conversation going.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" she asked, repeating the first question she'd asked him.

"About your sensitivity?" His fingers stopped moving, but remained tangled in her curls. There was a hint of confusion in his voice. A small giggle, one Trance hadn't known she was capable of at the moment, escaped.

"No, about why you were holed up in the slipstream core yesterday, and why you look so drained right now." He gave her a half smile.

"Is that your very polite way of saying I look like crap?" She returned his smile.

"Not quite, and you are evading." He gave her a look that seemed to say 'is it that obvious?' He had started to play with her hair again, this time combing his fingers through her ponytail. His fingertips brushed her shoulders rhythmically and she found it comforting. He remained oblivious. "Harper." she pressed after he remained silent for several moments.

"Rhade found something, that's all." His words were an attempt at indifference, but his voice told a different story. To a casual acquaintance, Harper would seem open and easygoing, but his exterior persona hid a well-guarded fortress whose walls even those closest to him had a difficult time breaching.

"If it were just something, you wouldn't have spent so much time in the core. What was it?" Harper withdrew his arm and stood up. She frowned. The air around her suddenly seemed chilly in the absence of his body heat, though it had been fine before he came. He began to pace, his feet clanking on the deck-plates. He withdrew a flexi from his back pocket and handed it to her. She took it and saw what seemed to be a code with a Yin-Yang symbol, like the one tattooed on Harper's arm, only with characters she could not read printed inside.

"It's from Earth," he told her. She nodded.

"I recognize the symbol, sort of. And these are Roman characters." She motioned to the text of the document. There were large pieces missing, indicating that the data was corrupted, but she still narrowed her eyes and studied the text a little closer in an attempt to pull out some meaning. She had kept her basic knowledge of millions of languages a secret. Most were long dead, as she had learned them millions, sometimes billions, of years ago, but her knowledge included several of Earth's languages, many of them making use of the Roman alphabet. Even so, this made no sense to her. "This isn't English, Spanish, or any other language I know of that uses these characters," she muttered. Harper stopped in front of her.

"You know English?" She nodded without looking up. He knew almost everything; there was no sense on concealing it any longer. He sat down beside her again and leaned in, reaching across her front to manipulate the data on the Flexi. The letters began to scurry like bugs on pavement, and when they had finished, the words switched places as well, creating new sentences, that she could now read. "It's the code for the Earth resistance. Everything we send out is stamped with this symbol, can you read those characters?" The reluctance had left his voice and there was a hint of excitement in his voice, the same excitement that was always present when someone else took a genuine interest in hearing about his homeworld and people. She shook her head.

"They look like symbols from Hindi or Arabic, and Chinese or Japanese, but I can't read most of the Ancient Earth languages," she said, looking up at him, "Only English, Latin, and a couple others." He looked truly amazed with his mouth hanging open and eyes frozen on her. She felt her cheeks warm and figured it had to be a blush, although she hadn't had much of an opportunity to experience that biological wonder since waking up. She gave him a small smile, "You learn a lot when you are as old as I am." Harper looked as if he were considering asking her age, and then thought better of it.

"You're right. These symbols mean liberation in three different languages," he explained. "The yin-yang is an ancient symbol that…"

"Represents darkness and light, male and female, peace and war. Basically, the unity of opposites," she said, cutting him off. "I know that well, because without one element, the other cannot exist." Harper nodded.

"For us, it is peace and war. We wanted peace for our families and our home, but we were willing to fight until the last Uber was taken care of to earn that peace." Trance winced at the venom in his voice. His expression was hard and so full of hatred that she had to look away. "Although it doesn't matter anymore since there is no Earth." His voice had changed again, now full of hopelessness and sorrow. She looked at the date stamp on the message. It was sent out a few hours before Earth was destroyed from somewhere pretty far. From the looks if it, it had been arriving at the very moment the planet disintegrated.

"How did Rhade find this?" she asked.

"You know that when Andromeda has communications open she sometimes intercepts fragments of other transmissions?" She nodded.

"Yeah, they are saved in a data-base so that they can be reviewed if the communications were open preceding a combat situation, or other such emergency." Suddenly it dawned on her. "When we were trying to get you back, Andromeda intercepted this, and Rhade found it a few weeks later after everything settled down." Harper stood up and began to pace again. She followed him with her eyes. His steps were quicker than they were before, agitated.

"Bingo. The transmission was sent from several light-years away. It was arriving at the very moment Earth was destroyed and somehow bounced back into space where Andromeda intercepted it. It survived, but it's pretty screwed up."

"You were working on this yesterday, trying to make sense of it?" He stopped directly in front of her with his back turned.

"These transmissions are locked behind three encryption codes to keep the Ubers out. Once those are broken, the text is written in English, with a code based on the letters, and then also the words. The Neitz are smart, so we had to be smarter." He rubbed his hands on his pant legs in a frustrated gesture. Trance felt the need to reach out to him and comfort him, but stayed where she was. "I spent hours decoding it, and even longer trying to figure out where it came from, but it's too messed up, and the text isn't very helpful."

"You're smart, Harper," she told him in an encouraging tone, "You can figure this out." He turned to face her. He banged his fists against his chest and rose his voice as he said,

"I'm a freakin' genius, and it doesn't mean anything right now. It's hopeless. Have you read it?" She sat up straighter. It was human nature to lash out at those closest to oneself when upset, but in the ten years she had lived amongst humans as if she were one of them, she'd never gotten used to it. She scanned the document again to be sure she'd read properly. She hadn't spoken English in over ten thousand years.

"_Drop …… successful ……… safe for now …………… don't know …children …………maybe … colony ……… next load ………… five … maybe less …" _

Trance stood up, ignoring the shakiness in her legs, and the pain in her head. She took a couple of small steps and placed a hand on Harper's shoulder. His muscles were tense and he trembled, more than likely from his pent up frustration. He relaxed some at her touch. They stood face-to-face, practically nose-to-nose. She brought her other hand up and placed it on his other shoulder and squeezed.

"The fact that this is here means that there is hope. I know what you think, that maybe before Earth was destroyed, the resistance managed to get some of your people off. I think you are right. This message is important. If there is a chance that some Terrans survived, you must find them." Harper studied her long and hard for a moment.

"Humans haven't been called Terrans for a very long time, Trance. Why do you care so much about Earth?" She sighed. He had always been able to read more into her actions than her other crewmembers. He had a suspicious mind coupled with enough curiosity to kill dozens of cats, and she hadn't been able to break him of it, even when it threatened his life. She had been honest with him about her origins, and about her dreams, there was no reason to stop now.

"Two people who were very close to me were the sun, and the planet Earth herself. I spent a lot of time there when the planet, and your people, and myself were young. I watched you both grow along beside me. You called her Mother Earth, I called her sister, and your sun, I call brother." He stepped away from her and she let her hands fall to her sides as she watched him. He looked shocked, but she could not read his expression beyond that. "Please say something," she said after a moment.

"Why does it feel like everything is connected; you, me, your brother, Earth, your people, the Vedrans, everything? Why does it feel like this entire mess with the Nietzcheans, and the Magog, and the Commonwealth, is just the beginning of something more?" he asked. She shrugged and slowly walked into her room motioning for Harper to follow. He did so, and their footsteps echoed in the hallway. She stepped up to the grate where ivy that had actually originated on Earth was growing. She reached out a hand and gently caressed one of its smooth leaves.

"The universe is a lot like this ivy. It starts at the base with one event, one life, or one decision. From that, something else branches off, and then something else." She followed one vine with her hand as it wound its way up the grate, and then stopped at a point where it crossed another vine, "Every decision, every life, every event causes more and more branch-offs until pretty soon, they come together. Lives and destinies become intertwined, sometimes very closely, and in the end, everything is connected by the one event, the one decision, or the one life that started it all. We cannot escape it, all we can do is make decisions that will help the vine to flourish, and put a stop to those who wish to see it die." She looked up to see if Harper was following her. He stared at the place where her hand rested.

"You can still predict probabilities, can't you?" he asked.

"Yes."

"What is the probability that I will find my people, and how do you know that we'll be helping the vine grow and not killing it?" She shrugged and rocked back and forth on the balls of her slippered feet.

"It is one in a very large number, but I can truthfully say we have succeeded when the deck was stacked much higher. As for the other, you never know whether you are helping or hurting. Perhaps finding the Terrans won't help at all, it could be only the journey that counts, or it could hurt things in the end, but isn't it worth the risk?" Harper smiled softly, and this time it was genuine.

"You sound like Trance again." She gave him a smile of her own, just as genuine.

"I was starting to wonder if I was Trance Gemini at all any more. She was destined to rule the Universe, and here I am, sick and scrawny, without any power. How could we be the same person? But, talking to you made me remember. My brother is right; he told me that I run away too easily when things get tough. For some reason all of us on Andromeda are connected to the fate of the universe, and it is time I stopped running."

"Why are we so important?" he asked, reaching out to touch a leaf himself.

"I do not know." They fell silent for a moment and then Harper said,

"Charlie is a really helpful plant." Trance giggled. Somehow, it felt easier to laugh now. "What?"

"This is Marla. Charlie is the vine in hydroponics." Harper shrugged.

"Ah well, maybe one day I will get them right. Oh, and you aren't scrawny." She raised her eyebrows and gave him a significant look.

"I weigh about 6.8 kilos less than I should."

"Okay, so maybe you're little scrawny, but we can fix that by going to lunch. Are you hungry?" She thought about it for a moment and then answered truthfully,

"I don't really know what hungry feels like. I just sort of ate when Rommie brought me food. I think I could eat now, though."

"Good, let's go." He turned and began to walk towards the airlock. Trance picked up an injector from one of the tables in her room and pressed it to her neck. Harper turned around at the hiss and gave her a worried and questioning look.

"Immune boosting nanos. I have to inject them before going into public areas until my immune system is mature. They die too quickly to be a permanent solution, and I have to inject them several times a day, but at least I can leave Med Deck."

"Will your immune system get better?"

"Rommie thinks so, we also think there may be a way to fix these up to help you. It will take some time, but we have hope." Trance felt something strange in her stomach and wrinkled her nose in discomfort.

"Is something wrong?" Harper was at her side with a hand on the small of her back in an instant.

"I don't know. My stomach just… just gurgled." She was not expecting the laugh that followed her words.

"What is so funny?"

"Now you know what hungry feels like. Your stomach is growling. Let's go get lunch." He laughed some more, and she laughed with him as they made their way off the Maru. Suddenly it struck her that this all felt familiar. They were interacting with each other as if they were still best friends and nothing had torn them apart in the first place, and that the sorrow she had felt earlier, the loneliness, was gone.


	8. Memories

Chapter 8: Memories

Sometimes you just knew that something wasn't right in your world. For Beka Valentine at that very moment it could have been the tingling sensation that usually signaled that something was out of the ordinary, or more likely the table set for six with only Dylan Hunt at the head looking rater impatient. She raised an eyebrow and motioned towards the table,

"Where is everyone, I thought I was late."

"You are." Dylan said deadpanned. Beka took a few steps towards the table.

"Oh," she said, "So why isn't anyone else here?" The senior crew of Andromeda had a long-standing tradition of eating a meal together at least once a day, barring any emergencies. Dylan insisted upon it in much the same way she had on the Maru. It felt a little bit less like a family meal onboard Andromeda, especially since two of the crew didn't have a biological need for food, but it was an important part of their day. It drew them all together and made Beka feel like more than just part of a starship crew. She had missed it during the early stages of their reunion on Seefra when it seemed like they would never be a crew again, and once again after Trance fell ill for several weeks. Trance was better now, so she had assumed that they would pick up where they left off and at least try to rekindle some sense of normalcy in the chaos that was their lives, but apparently she was wrong.

"I went to invite Trance to dinner tonight, but she insisted she wasn't hungry and would rather sit alone in her room on the Maru and work on some task or other for Harper, who is in the machine shop with Doyle. They seem to think they've found a way to trace the origins of that message we intercepted and don't want to leave until they have seen it through. Rommie was here for a little bit, but she was so anxious to oversee the overhauls Harper set a couple of the newer engineers on that I let her go." Dylan sounded more than a little annoyed. Beka slid into her usual seat, to the right of Dylan, and unfolded her napkin.

"So I guess it's just you and me tonight?" A drone, which Harper had insisted be dressed like a waiter in a fancy restaurant with a white shirt, vest, bow-tie, and apron, set a salad in front of her and one in front of Dylan. When there were more of them, the meals were served family style, but Dylan must have requested individual service before she arrived. The salad was a traditional green salad, made with synthesized romaine lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes, and a few fresh vegetables from hydroponics that they were all quite fond of. Beka wasn't sure exactly what they were called, especially the pink one that was crunchy like a carrot but tasted like a clove of garlic and an onion decided to mingle with one another, and Trance was not there to tell her, but she didn't care. In her forty years of existence, she'd eaten many a thing she either could not pronounce, or did not know the name of. In many cases, she didn't even know where it had originally come from. Knowing that Andromeda or Trance had created every ingredient was a definite improvement. The salad was garnished with a small cup of her favorite vinaigrette.

"Looks like it." Dylan sounded down and out at the notion, and she could relate, really she could. He had taken it hard when the crew had gone their separate direction on Seefra and were unwilling to come back together. He had busted his butt to make them a crew again, because he _needed_ his crew. Beka had learned at a young age to watch people and figure them out as quickly as possible. Dylan was a man on a mission. He needed to feel useful, and needed to take care of others. In that way, they were a lot alike. As head of the family, because that is what they were, he found it uncomfortable when it seemed like everyone was moving away from him, like tonight. Dylan just wanted things to be normal again. Unfortunately for him, they never would, but it wouldn't be polite to point it out so she just smiled and said,

"I'm not that bad of company, am I?" Her words had the desired effect. Dylan smiled and shook his head as he picked up his fork and stabbed a piece of lettuce.

"No, definitely not."

"Good." Beka delved into her salad as well. It was cool and refreshing, and exactly what she needed after the crazy day, no scratch that, week she'd just lived through. In the past few days, she had done a lot of thinking, mostly about the plans she'd set for her life. She had gone over and over them with a fine tooth comb, and nowhere did they say she wanted to be the mother of an entire race of egotistical, stubborn, self-serving super-humans. Sure, she and her little brother had played King of the Starship, and wondered late into the night what it would be like to be Emperor and Empress with millions of subjects to do their bidding. Frankly, it looked better in the brochure.

"So, how was your day? We haven't seen much of each other this last week." Dylan seemed to be out of the brooding stage and on to coming up with pleasant conversation. That was good, very good. She didn't particularly like talking to Captain Broods-A-Lot.

"Do you really want to know?" she asked.

"That bad, huh?" This was actually not normal dinner conversation, quite the opposite really. It was unusual for the crew to be so out of touch with each other's daily activities, but the Andromeda was in a strange spot right now. The Magog Worldship was gone, taking away the feeling of impending doom, and there were no immediate crisis that needed their attention, and over the past month, their largest mission as a crew was to drop off relief supplies from Centi and Terazed to Tarn Vedra in an attempt to restore it to its former glory. Andromeda had already been repaired from their battle with the Worldship, and the new engineering crew was overhauling systems that needed a little bit of work after spending a year in the Seefra system, while Rommie watched over them. Harper could do the overhauls with a blindfold covering his eyes and one hand tied behind his back, but at the moment they had all the time in the universe, so there was no need for he and Doyle to drop their pet project to find the escaped Earthers. Trance was no longer ill, but still not fit for duty, so she kept mostly to herself and her plants, even when she was helping out Harper. Dylan was practically glued to the communications console in his quarters, listening to the Triumvirs detail their plans for expanding the Commonwealth, and trying to warn them that things were not exactly peachy, and that sooner or later the other shoe would drop, and she was desperately trying to unite a people who were torn apart by thousands of years of rivalry.

Basically, they were back to where they were on Seefra, each looking after their own problems, only this time she knew that if she got in over her head, there would be someone waiting a few feet away to pull her out of the water. Still, it was a bit disconcerting to be only a few steps away from square one.

"I swear, I am going to run out of blood if I have to give anymore samples." Dylan laughed and chomped on a pale green vegetable that let off a loud crunch. He chewed in silence for a moment, and she took the opportunity to have a sip of water. Water had seemed such a dismal and boring substance before Seefra. Now it was her drink of choice. In what other ways had Seefra changed her?

"You gotta love kids, always asking questions, testing their parent's boundaries…" His tone had lightened considerably, and she smiled at their running joke. Beka had made it very clear that she didn't want children, and now she had millions. Not, of course, in the traditional sense, but she felt more than a little responsible for them.

"Well, they all need a time out, but even Andromeda is not big enough to enforce it." She stabbed at a tomato with more force than was strictly necessary. It squirted juice all over the rest of the salad.

"You went over to the Dragon ship today, right?" She chewed on her tomato for a moment, savoring the flavor of its juices mixed with the vinaigrette to buy some time to collect her thoughts.

"Yes, and if I never have to step foot on one of their ships again, it will be to soon." She stopped talking and munched on some more of her salad. Dylan just watched her patiently with knowing eyes, waiting for her to continue. She kept the silence for a few moments longer, and then spoke again. "I know that Nietzcheans keep slaves. Hell, some Humans still keep slaves, but the Dragons flaunt them. Everywhere you walked there were Humans in slave bracelets, and worst, there were children on the ship! They were skinny, frightened, and so sad… This one kid reminded me so much of how I imagined Harper at seven years old that I almost couldn't keep my eyes off him, and he looked at me, a human walking around free, like I was going to rescue him." She polished off her salad quickly. The serving bot came by and took her plate. Dylan seemed to contemplate something and then said,

"Maybe you will rescue him some day," he said. Beka gave him a small obliging smile.

"That sounds like a Trance statement. How?"

"It seems to me that you must be the mother of all Nietzcheans for a reason. Maybe it is your destiny to turn things around." Beka laughed and shook her head,

"Now you sound even more like Trance. You've been spending far too much time with her." Dylan's face had sported a good-natured smile, but her words seemed to have had all the power of a magic spell as it vanished almost instantly. Uh oh, enter Captain Broods-A-Lot…

"Actually, I haven't seen much of her at all since she was released from Med Deck, and when I do see her she is always busy with something, despite orders to be off duty for the next two weeks. I get the distinct impression she is avoiding me." Beka had to applaud the way he kept the bitterness in his tone to a minimum. It had to be hard for the poor guy. Before Seefra Trance had been his guide, preparing him to fight the Abyss and showing him the best way to protect his crew. In the Seefra system Trance had hardly done a thing without consulting Dylan first. He had protected and guided her when she did not know who or what she was. She had repaid that kindness with loving devotion.

Beka had known the moment she was told about Trance's transformation that the relationship between the former sun and Andromeda's captain would never be the same again. She was good at reading people and had spent a great deal of time silently observing the duo in Seefra. Trance's devotion to Dylan bordered on hero worship in much the same way, to her dismay, that Harper clung to her. He was Trance's rescuer, protector, and all around knight in shining armor. She was dedicated to him, loved him, and would do anything for him, but most of all, she wanted to be strong for him, as he had commanded her to be many times before. Trance would never want Dylan to see what she perceived as weakness in herself, so naturally, now that she was fighting a battle with her own body and was an emotional wreck on top of that she was avoiding him.

"Just give her a little bit of time, Dylan. She is trying to figure out who she is again." The serving bot came by and put a pasta dish with what looked like synthesized chicken and some sort of cream sauce in front of her. It smelled delicious. Dylan picked up his fork and twirled some noodles around it, though he did not bring them to his mouth.

"I know, and I want to help her." Beka took a bite of her meal to buy herself some time to think. It tasted as wonderful as it smelled, but unfortunately the succulence of her pasta did not make the words she needed come any easier.

"Dylan, Trance is strong," she said to start, hoping that she could make him see. How could you convince someone who was predestined to protect someone to take a step back? Hadn't she just tried and failed to stop Rhade from watching over her just a little over a month ago? "She is probably one of the strongest people I have ever met."

"Yes, I know, she is very brave," he replied in an almost placating tone that she took to mean he thought she was trying to change the subject. She leveled her gaze with his, giving him the look she'd mastered long ago when dealing with Dylan, the one that meant 'this is something you need to hear whether you like it or not, so you'd better listen'.

"Trance _is_ very brave, and she looks up to you, a lot."

"I already know all of this, Beka." His tone carried an impatient note.

"Yes, you do, but you don't understand the implications of it." Dylan chewed on his pasta for a moment, using her method to give himself time to think. Beka watched him, unconsciously twisting pasta around her fork. Finally he said,

"What do you mean _implications_?" Beka put down her fork. It clanked against the table in a room that was suddenly far too quiet. She took a deep breath before beginning. This would have to be handled delicately. She didn't want him to feel like she was blaming him for anything, because none of it was his fault, just as it was not her fault Harper had chosen her as his hero.

"Dylan, Trance has never really been able to see her own strength, but has always tried to be even stronger for you. Right now… Well, frankly, right now her life is a mess," Beka allowed herself a small, ironic smile, "even more so than the rest of ours, and she doesn't want to show you what she perceives as weakness."

"That's ridiculous."

"Yes, but it is very Human, and if there is one thing I have learned about Trance in the past seven years it's that no matter how different she is, her heart is usually in the same place as ours. She has always seemed very young, and young people who have no one else to take care of them usually find heroes to look up to and be strong for. It might seem silly to you, but I think she is a little bit scared that you won't love her as much anymore if she can't help you the same way she used to."

"That is ridiculous," he said, repeating his earlier sentiments. "How do you prove to someone that you still love them just the same?" Beka sensed that there was something else bothering Dylan as well, which was confirmed by his next comment, "Especially when it seems like the only person she wants to talk to is Harper." Beka suddenly understood everything and had to stifle a small laugh. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to keep a teasing smile from forming on her face. With a frown on his face, Dylan raised his eyebrows questioningly, "What?" he asked. Beka did laugh this time.

"It's kind of cute really," she said, earning herself a glare from Andromeda's beloved captain, "This isn't really about Trance avoiding you, and you know that it won't take long to prove to her that your love for her hasn't changed, you are upset because Trance is no longer your bestest friend." She chuckled again and took another bite of her pasta, knowing full well that Dylan was not going to find this as amusing as she did.

"Excuse me?" he asked incredulously. She swallowed and gave him a friendly smile.

"Trance has been your closest confidant next to Andromeda for three years. She has helped you, guided you, listened to your troubles, and in return, you cared for her, listened to her problems, and would do anything for her. She was your best friend, and even more than that, she needed you as much as you needed her," she explained. Dylan seemed to soften now that he didn't think she was making fun of him anymore. "You expected her to wake up and for everything to go back to normal, but three weeks later you see that things are different between the two of you. People's needs change with their lives, and Trance's life has changed more than anyone's should. Trance will always need you to protect her, but right now she needs something different."

"And that is Harper?"

"Yes, he is more on her playing field because Heaven knows she's seen him through some pretty terrible moments, and it's easier to show your weaknesses to someone who's shown you theirs. You can trust the little brat, he cares about her a lot." Dylan was silent for a long while as he took a bite of his meal and contemplated her words. She reached out and gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Listen, I know what you are going through."

"You do?" He looked dubious. She nodded.

"You bet I do. You see, Once upon a time there was a starship captain who was short a crewmember, so she went to this drift and ended up rescuing a girl from what she thought was a pretty bad situation at the time. The girl was grateful to the captain and would come to her when she was scared, or lonely, or when Harper hurt her feelings. She helped the captain out, and the captain quickly figured out that rescuing her brought a wave of good luck.

"Well, about a year later the captain and her small crew salvaged a big ship out of a black hole. It was supposed to make them rich enough to live easy lives, but instead they ended up signing on to a life that turned out to be way harder than the one they were living before." At this point Dylan glared at her. She raised her eyebrows to let him know she wasn't finished with her story yet. He backed off. "It was a lot harder, but it was a lot better, and everyone settled in fairly well and they all made friends with each other, even the rotten Nietzchean bounty hunter. For a while, things were the same between the captain and her original crew, but then things went kind of bad, and the girl changed, and pretty soon she was going to her new captain when she was scared and lonely, and she started bringing her new captain good luck instead."

"So you're saying I took Trance from you?" Dylan asked. Beka shook her head.

"No, Trance still came to me, especially when Harper hurt her feelings, but our relationship changed. She needed you to help her save the Universe, and didn't need me to kiss her boo boos anymore. You were trying to save the Universe too, and so it was a perfect match." Dylan seemed to accept this and they went back to their meals. After a bit Dylan asked,

"What kind of situation did you take Trance out of?" Beka tapped her fork against her plate.

"You really have to ask Trance that. I'm not even sure now if she actually needed help, or if it was just an elaborate ruse to get me to bring her onto my ship, but there was this look in her eyes that told me she really was in over her head and needed a knight and shining armor to come to the rescue. I'm a sucker for rescuing kids. I didn't go to that drift looking for another kid. Harper was quite enough to deal with already, but I left with one. I had to fight with myself, tell myself that I couldn't rescue them all." She sighed, thinking back to their earlier conversation, "Now I am having that same fight with myself again."

"Maybe this time you are meant to rescue them, Beka."

"Maybe…" she said, knowing that not only did she have to come to the rescue of the slaves, but she also had to unite the entire Nietzchean race before the long night would ever end, and that was easier said than done. She went back to her meal, and after a while they started to talk again, this time veering from any sensitive subjects.

AAAAAAAAAAAA

"Dylan, are you ready for you closing report?" Andromeda asked, appearing before him in her holographic form. Dylan nodded a yes to the hologram as he began to change out of his uniform into a pair of sleeping pants and a black t-shirt, an outfit comfortable enough to wear to bed, but decent enough to be seen by his crew in if an emergency should arise during the night. Andromeda's closing report was his way of keeping up with his senior crew, putting the day's events in perspective, and catching up on his agenda for tomorrow.

"Go ahead," he replied. Andromeda crossed her arms behind her back and stood straight and tall dressed in one of her uniform choices. "And start with the crew, especially Trance." It had been two days since his dinner with Beka and while he understood what his first officer had told him, it was still difficult to see so little of the girl. He figured that if she didn't come to him in another week, he would go to her and very firmly, but politely insist that they sit and talk, especially before she went back on light duty.

"Trance's treatment is progressing well. She is now sleeping only eleven hours out of the day and I suspect that she will stop at about ten hours. She is still on immune boosters, but she should be able to stop using them in another couple of months. She will probably be ill frequently, like Harper, but will not succumb to smaller infections and be able to fight off larger ones on her own. Doyle has agreed to begin helping Trance exercise since she has very little strength flexibility, and stamina after her change. However, I see no reason to delay her planned reinstatement on the duty roster as long as she is kept to light work."

"Good to hear, how is Harper doing?"

"Harper and Doyle have figured out in which direction the message to Earth came from, but have not had any luck narrowing it down, or deciphering any more of the text. At my request, and with the aid of my avatar, he is working on another project to take his mind of it for a while since they have been deadlocked for nearly two days. There were a few bugs in my systems due to the recent upgrades, but he took care of those quickly." Dylan climbed up onto his bed and stretched out with his head propped up on a pillow. Andromeda followed him and stood at the foot of his bed.

"Beka, as you know, is taking the Maru to a Drago Kazov colony tomorrow. Delegates from several loyal prides with escort her. I have set up three check-in times to further assure her safety since the extent of her escort's loyalties is as of yet unknown. There was a dispute this afternoon in the Crew Mess between a couple of lancers, but it was solved quickly. My avatar may have had something do with it." Andromeda said the latter with a smile. All Rommie had said was that she'd stepped in between the fight, but there were reports of her stepping between, picking the two men up by their collars, and setting them down, shocked, a few feet away from each other. He had yet to review the tapes. It wasn't something that would have been acceptable on a starship in the old days, but no matter how big the commonwealth got, things would never really go back to the way they were, this was a much rougher Universe that needed a rougher hand.

"And what news do we have on the Commonwealth front?" he asked.

"The Commonwealth as received a request from the Rindrins to join, as you well know. They wish for us to be present at their signing, but you also know that they are waiting for an auspicious date. They have now narrowed it down to three, all roughly a month away. This news will likely make Harper smile since the Rindrins follow every ceremony with a huge festival of drinking and pleasure in which we will all be expected to attend." Dylan nodded. This was just like in the old days when Andromeda was invited to a party almost every week. He'd been to a Rindrin party before, and it was definitely a night to remember, despite all the ceremonies that had to be observed. "On a more disturbing note, there were reports about two hours ago from the Tagris system. It seems that their sun's orbit is shifting which is causing several natural disasters." Andromeda raised an eyebrow and Dylan understood almost instantly what she was thinking. Right now the Triumvirate and everyone else governing the Commonwealth were blissfully ignorant of the stars' sentience. To them, this was a puzzling act of nature, but Andromeda and her captain knew better.

"I would like you to collect all news coming from the Tagris system. We need to be ready to jump in and evacuate its three planets in case their sun decides to move somewhere." He let out a heavy sigh. The Abyss was gone and it problems were just beginning. Unfortunately, this was a subject he would have to breach with Trance, and one that was more than a little sensitive. "I'll talk to Trance and see what I can find out. Is that everything?" Andromeda gave him a sympathetic smile at the former, and nodded at the latter. "Good. Thank you."

"Good night, Dylan." Andromeda said with a friendly smile. He returned it.

"Good night." Andromeda disappeared, shutting off the lights at the same time, as was their custom. Dylan rolled over onto his side, pulling his blanket over his body, and quickly fell asleep.

AAAAAAAAAAAA

_He was in a forested place, surrounded by every shade of green and brown imaginable, with little bits of reds, pink, and yellows mixed in here and there. There were giant, sloping trees with large leaves that flapped in the small, cool breeze that blew around him, and smaller trees with tiny leaves that rattled against each other, making it sound as the world around him were chattering happily away in voices no more than whispers that he could not make out. There were graceful vines climbing up the trunks of trees, and tall grass bordering the reddish brown trail he found himself standing on. Sunlight peaked through holes in the canopy sending down spotlights to light the shadows. He could hear no animals, but in the distance a brook gurgled away, seemingly without a care in the world. It seemed silly, seeing as how several of the trees looked to about a thousand years old, but he got the impression that this was a work in progress, like a painter's canvas that was still being worked on._

_His first thought was that he had to have made a mistake. This planet did not feel like it was occupied, much less by the Empress of a species meant to rule the Universe, but all he had to do was look at the carefully cut trail to realize that someone had to live here, and that the others would not have made a miscalculation sending him back in time to when the Universe was only a few billion years old. They were a powerful people, created to traverse space and time, but they were not infallible. If the others had made a mistake and placed him on a planet that could not support life, he would have died. They would have been certain he was going to the right place, and so this wild work of art had to be it._

_He walked a little ways down the trail and then stopped when he heard something that sounded a lot like singing. He knew better, though. It was the language of the Lambent Kith, and from what he could tell, it was the voice of a child, probably a little girl. He listened closely. He could not speak their language, but he had been taught to understand._

"_Life, energy, creation…" she was saying, over and over again. He took a few steps closer, keeping as quite as possible. The voice grew more frustrated as it chanted. She must have been chanting for a while. When he was close enough, he peered through a thicket to see a small purple creature kneeling in front of a cleared out space. She had pointed ears and a tail that swished back and forth behind her. Her blonde hair was curly and hung down her back, tied with a vine to keep it out of her face. She wore a simple jumpsuit of some sort of green fabric and had threaded flowers and shiny things all throughout her hair. His best guess was that she was no more than four or five years old, though if she was who he thought she was, that number was more along the lines of three or four billion years. "Come on, please grow," she said. He saw that she was pleading with something cupped in her hands, though he could not tell what it was. She let out a sigh and her shoulders drooped sadly, but then she perked up and turned around, looking directly at him with eyes that were almost black in color._

"_Hello," she said with an innocent smile. There was no fear in her stance, only curiosity. He stepped forward out of the thicket, closer to her, and she did not back away. She only stood up. The top of her head barely reached above his knee. "What are you doing here? This planet is our project, and we did not create you. There are only plants here. I am still trying to figure out how to make complex life." He was stunned at her forthrightness. Though she was very old by his standards, and was speaking about creating life, she spoke like the children from his world, innocently and without holding back._

"_Hello little one, is there another one of you?" he asked, speaking Vedran. The others had told him that the Lambent Kith would understand Vedran. Even at this time, when the universe was only eight billion years old, the Kith had a relationship with the Vedrans, the first species to take root and grow in this Universe._

"_You speak Vedran, but you don't look like a Vedran." She said in his language somewhat indignantly, though it was difficult to tell with her strong accent. She put her hands on her hips. "I only see _two_ legs and your skin looks like Mother and Aurelia's."_

"_He's not Vedran, silly," another child's voice chimed in. He couldn't see the child at first, but then in a flurry of leaves a body fell from the trees, help upside down by its tail. The child looked exactly like the one on the ground, only with shorter hair. There was a single flower tucked into his ear, and his sparkling purple chest was bare. His trousers were the same color as the other child's jumpsuit. The girl was definitely who he thought she was_

"_Then what is he?" she asked, switching back to her language, her voice denoting a challenge. He knew he needed to step in before the two children began to argue. He marveled at how two siblings from the most powerful species in the Universe could seem so normal. Only the brother existed in the time he came from, nothing more than a shell after his sister fell victim to the Abyss. That was why he was here, why he was created, to protect these children and to make sure that there was a perfect possible future where they were protected from the Spirit of the Abyss until the little girl was old enough to rule._

"_I'm a Paradine," he said. The boy plopped down from the tree, landing gracefully beside his sister. He wrapped an arm around his shoulder. It was disorienting to see them staring back at him, looking so much alike, and yet with tiny differences to throw the observer off._

"_There is no such thing, I know all the organic species names." The boy said._

"_I come from a different time and it is very important that I speak to your mother, the Empress." The little boy and girl seemed to have a conversation with their eyes, and he suspected there was a bit of telepathic communication going on when she blurted out suddenly,_

"_But he has a nice face." After another moment of silence the little boy said, _

"_We will take you to her, but my sister has to finish her assignment before we see mother. And, we need to know your name." They didn't offer theirs to him, but he didn't mind. He already knew their names, or at least the ones they would take later in life.  
_

"_Dylan, my name is Dylan. Will this assignment take long?" The little boy shook his head._

"_I had it done really quickly." The little girl pouted and looked ready to argue, but she thought better of it and asked in a small voice,_

"_Did you really make your fish already?" He nodded and took her hand, which was still grasping whatever she'd been cupping in it earlier. "It was easy, Aurelia already gave us the matter to create with. Do you want me to help you?" She smiled big and Dylan watched as she cupped her hands and her brother placed his over them._

"_Life, energy, creation…" they chanted together. Light appeared between their hands and in a moment the little boy took his off and two butterflies with golden wings fluttered into the air. The little girl giggled and ran up to him._

"_That is the first life besides trees I have ever created!" _

"_Is that so?" Dylan asked. She nodded and then held out her hand. He realized a moment later that she wished for him to hold it. She was so innocent, so trusting, and absolutely amazing, and he was sent here to protect her. He took her tiny hand in his and they began to walk down the trail. After a moment or two he lifted her into his arms to carry while her brother clung to his other hand, leading him to where their mother was. _

"_So, you two created all of this?" he asked, and she began to point out who had created what, with some input, and more than a few correction, from her brother._

And, with that, Dylan woke up.

AAAAAAAAAAAA

Author's Note: I apologize for the wait on this chapter. My air conditioner was broken for quite some time and I lost my will to write when it got over 90 degrees in my apartment. I am back on track now. All reviews are appreciated .


	9. Cosmically Scary

Chapter 9: Cosmically Scary

The first thing Dylan noticed when he stepped onto Obs Deck was that the lights were not merely dimmed, as they usually were, but almost completely off. The flickering of candlelight was the second thing he noticed, and the third were the two women seated cross-legged on mats in front of the large view port wearing workout clothing. This was the time of night when the deck was reserved for only the officers and not the general crew. It was a courtesy meant for a crew much larger than his, with several officers on staff. The only real 'officers' he had were Rommie, himself, and Rhade when he was onboard, so this time was basically reserved for the senior staff to hang out without having to worry about the crew bursting in on them. That is why, he assumed, Trance and Doyle were stretching by candlelight here instead of somewhere else.

In the old days, he might have reprimanded them and ordered them to choose a more appropriate spot for working out, such as one of the many gyms onboard, but he and his crew played things a little differently now, and why not? The Obs deck was certainly a more relaxing place to practice stretching a breathing exercises, and he knew that Trance preferred being able to look out at the Universe, her former playground. Who was he to deprive her of that? Especially when his basketball hoop still hung, somewhat out of place, in one of the hydroponics gardens she tended to with such loving devotion.

Dylan stood back and watched for a moment. If either woman had noticed his entrance, which he was sure they must have, they did not acknowledge it. Doyle's voice was soft and low as she demonstrated and explained a specific stretch to Trance who, with a look of great concentration, followed the android's instructions. She stretched out one leg in front of her and bent her other leg until her foot was parallel to the knee and bent her torso forward. She didn't get very far. Doyle instructed her to take a deep breath, came over to her, and gently pressed down on her lower back to help her fold forward just a little bit more.

"This will do for right now, but in a while you will be able to touch your nose to your knees. Okay, take two more breaths and then come up slowly and then do the same on the other side." He watched as she followed Doyle's instructions without complaint. Dylan couldn't imagine how difficult it was going to be for Trance to learn how to exercise when she had never needed to before, and to gain strength from practically nothing when she used to be deceptively strong. At first he'd thought it strange that Andromeda had picked Doyle to be Trance's instructor, but watching them, it made sense. Trance and Doyle had hit it off right away on Seefra and were pretty good friends, and Doyle had instantaneous access to an entire database of physical therapy and exercises for thousands of species, and could demonstrate accurately the movements needed. She was the perfect personal trainer for Trance, at least in the beginning. Dylan had a feeling that once things started to hurt she would need someone who could feel the same pain to keep her motivated.

After Trance was finished with her stretch she turned around and looked at Dylan with a small smile on her face to let him know that she'd known he was there all along. He flashed back to the dream he'd had three days ago where a tiny purple child had done the same thing. He could see the similarities between the child in his dream and the woman sitting in front of him, and it was a bit disconcerting.

"You can come in now. We were just finishing up." Dylan nodded and took a few steps forward, but stopped when out of the corner of his eye he caught Doyle twisted into a position that didn't seem physically possible, even for an android. Trance followed his gaze and then giggled nervously.

"I can't do that," she said. Dylan took a few steps closer and sat on the bench that was a couple of feet away from Trance.

"I don't think anyone should be able to do that," he replied with a wink. Doyle straightened herself out.

"Sorry, I came across it in a file for a form a stretching called Yoga that originated on Earth, and had to try it."

"Humans invented that pose?" Dylan asked with a note of disbelief. Doyle nodded as she began to roll up her mat.

"And many more like it. The practice of Yoga went on for quite some time before its values and poses were combined with other forms of therapeutic stretching."

"I see." Dylan said. Trance pulled herself onto her knees, sat back against her heels, and began rolling up her mat as well.

"Doyle has lots of facts like that. It keeps things interesting." Trance said with a smile directed at the android. Doyle returned the smile and tucked her mat under her arm. She looked at Dylan and then back to Trance and said,

"I promised Harper I would watch some sort of film with him. He insists it's a classic and I will enjoy it, but you know Harper…" Trance laughed. It was a small, quiet laugh, but it was natural and free of inhibitions; not something Dylan had been expecting. When Trance had changed the first time around and traveled through the Tesaract waves to save Harper, it had taken her months to learn how to laugh again. He had not expected it to take so long this time around, since her friends were more willing to support her through this change (he was ashamed to admit that they had all kept her at arms length before), but he had been prepared for the worst. He had thought that surely three-and-a-half weeks was not nearly enough time for her to let her guard down. Her laughter, therefore, was a pleasant surprise.

"I am sure he will find some way to entertain you." Trance said. Doyle gave Trance a knowing smile and said,

"That's what I am afraid of." Dylan joined in with the laughter this time. Harper's less than successful, and completely harmless, overtures towards the female crewmembers were a never-ending source of amusement for Andromeda's senior staff. It felt good to laugh, and Dylan realized that it must have been weeks since a true laugh had bubbled up from deep within him and broken the surface. He would have to do something about morale on his ship, his own included, or they would be halfway defeated the next time trouble reared its ugly head. Doyle looked at Dylan again once the laugher had died out and then back at Trance, "I'll see you tomorrow. We'll work on upper body strength a little. It will make the ladders easier to handle." Trance gave her a grateful smile.

"See you tomorrow. Enjoy yourself," and then as an afterthought added, "and make sure Harper does, too."

"I will," Doyle said and left the room, her heeled boots clicking against the deck-plates. Trance was silent for a moment as she finished rolling up her mat, and then one by one bent down to blow out the candles. Their smoke twisted in mesmerizing patterns towards the cealing, and the scent of burnt wax filled the air. Her gaze did not meet his, but she undoubtedly felt his eyes on her. It became clear that she wasn't going to make the first move, so he said,

"You seem to be in a good mood." She picked her candles up and began placing them neatly in a small bag, and then on top of them she sat her mat. She still did not look at him and he was finding this a little more awkward than he'd originally anticipated.

"I have my moments. I try to focus on the good things, and not dwell on the bad."

"That's a good way to look at life." Dylan replied. She finally looked up, giving him a warm smile.

"You did not come here to talk about my mood," she pointed out, her uncanny knack for seeing right through a person still working as well as ever. He let out a small chuckle.

"No, I didn't, but I still want to know. We haven't seen each other much in the past few weeks." Trance zipped up her bag and pushed it towards the bench, and then she got up and took a seat next to him. She sat with her back straight, hands folded on her lap, and head tilted to where she could see him. He noticed faint circles under her eyes that told him she was not sleeping as well as she should be, and a small crease on her forehead that spoke of worries deep beneath the surface, so deep in fact, that she might not even realize she was in a constant state of worry.

"I'm sorry," she said in a small voice, "I just haven't felt much like talking."

"Except to Harper?" He kept his tone soft and questioning, pressing her gently for more information on the Chief Engineer's renewed "best friend" status. She shook her head ever so gently, an indiscernible look on her face. Perhaps her slightly upturned lips and half closed eyes were a sign of the pensiveness she had developed in Seefra, or maybe a certain fondness for the object of her thoughts; it could every well have meant nothing at all, except that he was trying to read too much into her actions.

"He does most of the talking. He has many stories to tell, about Earth and his childhood, and how he learned everything he knows." She shrugged her shoulders and met his eyes with hers, which had always been a mystery to him. They were filled with emotion, but so deep that he could never quite tell which emotions they were. "It helps him to talk."

"And you?"

"It helps me to listen, as it will help me to listen to why you have come up here. There is something troubling you." Straight to the point, she was. It took him aback, as it always did. He never knew what to expect with the new Trance, the one he had found in Seefra. Oftentimes there was vagueness about her, as if she were wandering deep within the vast recesses of her mind and too busy with it to spare much attention to the outside world, and then other times, like now, she surprised him. Either way, her wisdom, knowledge, and advice were needed at the moment. This was certainly not the best time to be going to her for counseling, as she had enough to deal with already, but unfortunately she was the only one on the entire ship who could help him. He had mulled over it for days, fighting a battle with himself, trying his best to do what he could alone, but he simply didn't have the expertise to deal with things on a cosmic level, whether it be suns leaving their orbit, or the mysteries surrounding his past.

"You're right," he said, and then added to lighten things up, "I should get used to that." Trance gave him a warm smile in reply and once again he was reminded of the little girl in his dream, the one his dream told him he was born to protect. "I need to ask you some questions, about your people, and your past. Will you be all right?" She looked away from him, staring straight forward into the expanse of stars, and was silent for a long moment. Then, she nodded slightly.

"I knew that you would have to. I will do my best to answer."

"That's all I am asking for." He gave her a quick pat on the knee before resting his hand beside him on the cool bench. She pulled her legs up into a cross-legged position, her eyes never leaving the stars. Deep down inside, he felt he understood a bit of what she was going through, for he had a foggy recollection of being much more than he was today, and the vast Universe seeming a much smaller place. "What do you know about the Paradine, their history?" He decided to ask the question that would be easiest on her first. She turned to him and gave him an appraising look before saying,

"No one knows about the Paradine's past. They were created at a time unknown, for a reason unknown. I have a theory, but it may be quite wrong."

"I would be interested in hearing it." Dylan shifted his weight on the bench, which was hard and uncomfortable. Harper was always saying that the Obs Deck needed a few comfortable lounge chairs, and at the moment he was inclined to agree.

Trance seemed to contemplate what she was going to say, looking out to the stars for whatever guidance they might offer. Then she locked eyes with him, her expression telling him that this was serious, and that she thought that she might be, at least a little bit, right.

"I believe the Paradine were created by the Vedrans, late in the original timeline of this Universe. I think there was a problem, and the Paradine were sent back to the beginning to fix it. What it was, I could not tell you, except that I believe the Abyss was somehow involved, and the future of this Universe. The Paradine have been here ever since, guiding and protecting, making changes to ensure this Universe's survival. The original reason has been lost for some time, even to the oldest Paradine. Why the sudden interest?"

"I had a dream," he said. The truth sounded strange to his ears. There was a time in his life when he would have scoffed at the thought of a dream meaning anything more than his subconscious's way of expressing its joys and sorrows. Those days were long gone to the place where the Dylan Hunt who used to believe that suns were just giant balls of gas dwelled. Trance nodded, as if this made perfect sense to her, which, he decided, was probably true.

"Dreams are funny things. I don't remember mine anymore, just how they make me feel, but I used to dream of the future. Did you dream about the Paradine?" Dylan put his hands on his thighs and took a deep breath as if he were physically bracing himself for a run through the gauntlet. Truth be told, he would have preferred the physical sort to the emotional.

"Not quite. I dreamt of you." Trance's cheeks took on a reddish hue, and she tilted her head in a way he knew meant she didn't quite understand.

"Me?"

"Yes, as a very young child. Your brother was with you." She was silent for a long moment before whispering softly,

"Castor…" She seemed to disappear into her own mind, which was nothing new. Before, he would have assumed she was looking to the future, but it was more likely she was looking into a past so distant he could scarcely believe it.

"Trance?" he said to get her attention. She blinked away the vagueness and locked eyes with his once more. She put on a brave face, but the small frown and look of longing on her face did not go unnoticed.

"I do not remember much of my childhood, it was so long ago, but I do not think I knew you before we boarded Andromeda the first time, and I am certain you have never met my brother."

"Castor is you twin's chosen name?" She nodded.

"Even if you don't remember meeting me, I just know this dream was a memory. How can that be?" Trance shrugged and gave him a sympathetic smile.

"It could be that I simply forgot. It had been so long since I last saw Aurelia that I didn't remember her until we saw her two years ago. I have seen much in my life, and am very old, so it's only natural that I would forget things from my childhood." Something popped into Dylan's head at her words, a fact about Trance that had not been in his dream, and something he was certain she'd never told him, but somehow he knew it true.

"You're almost 8 billion years old, right? I can't even remember what happened when I was five, so that would make sense." To say Trance looked shocked would have been an understatement; floored was probably the better term.

"How?" Dylan shook his head and smiled.

"I have no idea. I just knew. I sensed a 'but' at the end of your first statement." She nodded, her eyes still locked with his, wide with childlike amazement. The gears and cranks in her mind were working hard, even as she answered him.

"But, it is also possible that your dream comes from a timeline before this one, a timeline where you went back and changed things." It was Dylan's turn to be perplexed and while he was trying to puzzle out the semantics she said, "If you know my age, you must have known me, but I am sure I'd have remembered after seeing you again, just as I remembered Aurelia."

"So you believe the second explanation is more plausible?' Her head dipped in agreement. Dylan shook his head in confusion and gestured at the air, "How? How is it possible to remember something from another timeline? There have to be at least a half-a-dozen paradoxes involved." Trance gave him a look that clearly said 'and you find this surprising how?' before going into her explanation. Dylan was suddenly reminded of Beka's dual childhood, his identity as a Paradine, Tarn Vedra being Seefra 1, and suddenly it seemed a little less unlikely.

"In our universe alone there are an innumerable number of timelines or possible futures. For every decision, every choice that is made or could be made by every creature in this Universe, a new timeline is created. Most of these are merely shadows, like the outline of chalk that's been washed away by the rain, but there are hundreds of thousands that are more substantial.

"The Lambent Kith have a connection with these timelines. We always have. Before we became a part of this universe we could merely sense them, which is how we can calculate probabilities. With the energy we gained from the Lucifers and other celestial bodies, we could reach out and touch these timelines. Those of us joined with suns could even communicate with our selves who lived in the other timelines. Do you remember Almathea?" Dylan gave her a nod and said,  
"Of course. I don't think I could ever forget her sacrifice."

"She was a version of me who had a vastly different destiny. If we choose to give all of our energy, the suns can even effect things in other timelines, which is what she did. If what I believe is true, then the Paradine are also connected to these other timelines, but not physically as the Lambent Kith are. You cannot communicate with yourself, but in times when it becomes necessary, I think you can access the memories of your other selves." Dylan sighed.

"This is a lot to take in Trance. Why?"

"Dylan, I don't know much more than you do. All I am doing is guessing. I think the why is probably a fail safe."

"A fail safe? That sounds so simple." Trance gave him a small smile of understanding.

"If you think about it, it is kind of simple. If you were going to go and dramatically change things, wouldn't you want to remember what you did in case something goes wrong so you can go back and fix it?" Dylan hadn't thought of it like that, and it made sense. The Paradine supposedly traveled through time, watching, and changing things for the better, but not every change was good in the long run; as far as he knew, the Paradine were not omnipotent, omniscient, or invincible. His father had lived and died, and he himself had been born over three hundred years before. If that were the case, it made sense to have a way for the version of himself living in the current, true, timeline to remember what changes were made in case things didn't turn out exactly how they were supposed to. But, if that were the case, it meant…

"Trance, if you're right it means that I am remembering because something has gone wrong." He realized this with a sense of horror, and the painful knowledge that Flavin and anyone else who understood his roll in the Universe was dead in this timeline, fed to the Abyss by the leader of the Nebula.

"And you are the only Paradine left, so there is no way to go back and fix things." Trance said, echoing his thoughts. He nodded. He wouldn't even know how to travel back in time on his own, and he got the distinct impression from his dream that it took more than one Paradine to make a large jump through time. They fell into a heavy silence for several long moments. Trance reached out her hand and placed it on top of his, which was resting on his knee. The sudden heat from her touch sent goose bumps up his arm. He wasn't sure he would ever get used to how hot her skin was now. Her hands had been almost cool before, regulated to something more normal for a human. Despite its unnatural temperature, her touch was comforting. "Dylan, there is still power in knowledge. My brother still believes there is a perfect possible future out there, so hope is not lost. You may be one person, but you should know by now that one person, or one small group of people, can change the entire course of a universe. Pay attention and remember, it may be a valuable weapon later."

"How did you get so wise?" he asked after a moment of silence. She shrugged.

"I'm old, and now you know exactly how old." There was a hint of bitterness towards the last part and Dylan found it somewhat amusing that she was sensitive about her age. He remembered a couple of spats between Harper and her a few years ago as he relentlessly pressed her for personal information. Her age had been a sore subject.

"Don't worry Trance, you don't look a day over 23. Just look at me, I'm over three-hundred and I'm practically an old man." She giggled softly.

"You are not, you look middle-aged and distinguished."

"In other words, old." She laughed and shook her head, then asked to change the subject,

"Far from it. What else did you want to ask me about?" Dylan's smile immediately disappeared. He didn't particularly _want_ to ask Trance his next question. It was going to be hard on her. He needed to ask, though. He needed to find out what motivation a sun would have for leaving her orbit, and if the Tagris systems sun was, as he suspected, a member of the Nebula.

"There have been reports from the Tagris system that worry me." He said, trying to break this to her as easily as possible. Trance was not stupid. She knew that his questions would involve her people and picked up on his meaning immediately.

"You think the Nebula is involved? What is happening?" Her voice was remarkably strong and her eyes were the picture of concern. There was no self-interest in her reaction. She was strong.

"The sun seems to be leaving orbit. It's happening slowly. The planets are suffering several natural disasters, and there is a possibility that the first planet and all its moons may be destroyed completely. The Tagarian government is asking us now to hold off on mass evacuations for a few weeks so that they may gather up technology, historical artifacts, and the like, but it doesn't look good." Trance frowned and looked away from him, out at the stars. She seemed to understand the unasked question, the 'what do you know?' without his having to ask it.

"The sun of the Tagris system is Niria, and she is a part of the Nebula. She is one of the younger members, only four billion years old, but as mature as an adult. The system is made up of three planets, two sisters and a brother. Their husbands and wives are the moons. Niria is un-joined, which is not rare amongst those who were created."

"Why would Niria just start to move? She must know she is threatening she is threatening the planets." Trance still didn't look at him. Her stance was stiff and he saw a tear trickle down her cheek, but he refrained from reaching out to her, remembering Beka's words. Trance didn't want to show him weakness and was obviously trying not to let him know she was crying. For now, he would respect that.

"She most certainly does," Trance replied in a strong voice. "They are being punished. Rina, Tyri, and Blaz must have done something to defy the Nebula, to anger them. The Nebula is harsh with their punishments; I have felt their hand many times for individuality and disobedience, and finally for outright defiance." Her voice cracked at the latter, the reason for her current situation, but she held onto her composure. "What they could have done, I do not know. Having everything they have created, everything they watch over and care for destroyed is Rina and Tyri's punishment. Blaz is the first planet, and he will not be so lucky. His punishment will be death, as is the punishment for any male citizen who defies the Nebula. His two wives will share in his fate." Her tone had changed. There was a cold finality in her words, and for once her voice lacked the compassion he was used to. She sounded distant, almost unfeeling, as if she were talking about an event in an ancient history book rather than the impending doom of an entire planet, two moons, and the displacement an ancient species from the three planets they called home.

For a moment he caught a glimpse of who Trance must have had to be for the Nebula, to do the Nebula's bidding. Small signs in her posture, apparent only to someone who had taken the time to get to know her, to understand her emotions, belied the uncharacteristic coldness of her voice. The Nebula's means deeply troubled her, but with the practice of someone who hated what was happening around them, but could do nothing to prevent it, she had learned to outwardly distance herself and give no show of her emotions, lest she suffer severe punishment as well. This time he didn't stop himself from reaching out and placing a hand on her stiff shoulder.

"Is there anything we can do?" he asked. She finally looked at him. Her eyes were as hard as the cold metal that made up Andromeda's hull. He could see anger and loathing in their depths. Her lips were pressed together tightly and her forehead wrinkled. The anger was not directed towards him and he never felt for a moment it was. The light hit her auburn hair in just the right way to give the impression of heat. Trance looked like an angry goddess just stepped of a child's book of fairy tales and it was fearsome to behold.

"Can you stop a sun without destroying an entire system down to the very matter that created it?" she asked. He didn't answer. He didn't have to. It was a rhetorical question meant to point out the hopelessness of the situation, and it did, in the worst way.

"Such is the power of the Nebula. The Nebula needs organics to do their bidding, to bring about the future they desire. That is why we are sent amongst you to manipulate as one would pieces on a game board, but don't for a moment think that they are as fallible as human beings. I doubt they will be any different than any other tyrant. They will save those they deem necessary and dispose of the others like chaff in the wind. Any one of our people who steps in the way will be punished harshly, never mind the consequences the organics under their protection. The future will be marked with unexplained disasters, illnesses, and political change until only the strong and obedient remain." He could never have imagined Trance capable of the anger she now portrayed. Sweet, gentle, Trance has become much like a mother-bear whose cubs were being threatened. He didn't like this angry and frightening version of her.

"Trance, you told me earlier there was hope for a perfect possible future." She seemed to calm down, her face loosing some of its sharpness. She now looked more tired than anything else.

"Castor believes there is, and I trust in his judgment. The only way is to defeat the Nebula. Alone they are not much, but they have power over my people, more power than they should have. We thought they would always be loyal so no safeguards were put in place to limit their power. The only benefit to us that I can see so far is that though they are physically and mentally more mature than the Trueborn, they lack the wisdom of those of us who took much longer to grow into adults. We have seen more, and understand more, and most of us are no longer children. However, I doubt my people, even the Trueborn, will fight. There is a taboo against war, because open warfare amongst my people could destroy the entire universe, so much so that it could never be born again." Dylan just stared at her for a moment, trying to take in what she'd just said.

"This is scary, Trance, all of it." Trance gave him an ironic smile, one with no joy.

"Harper once called me cosmically scary. It's the only phrase that fits."

"Cosmically scary, huh?" She nodded, and then said,

"If you don't mind, Dylan, I am quite tired and would like to return to my room." He nodded his permission for her to leave. She picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder before slowly walking out of the room. Dylan watched her go. If there was a perfect possible future, he was certain it was a long way off, and almost impossible to reach. But, this was the Andromeda after all, and he knew it was their duty to try.

AAAAAAAAAA

A/N: Once again, sorry about the wait . I hope you all enjoy! The next chapter should have some more Trance and Harper in it for anyone who misses it.


	10. Off Duty

Chapter 10: Off Duty

Doyle moved with ease through the latest haul of cargo, scanning each item with her eyes, and registering them almost instantly in the database. There were crates and barrels and bags of all shapes and sizes, each containing uniforms, clothing, foodstuffs, weapons, bedding, mechanical equipment, a more than generous stock of medical supplies, and anything else that Andromeda needed to stock up on for future missions, and the addition of another thousand or so crewmembers. There were even a couple of plants that were most likely ordered by Trance to supplement her gardens. While Rommie was on the other side of the hanger bay processing each new recruit and handing him or her each a room assignment and orientation time, Doyle was supervising the unloading and documentation of cargo. She had no official position on the Andromeda crew. A ship really only needed one Avatar, but Dylan always found a place for her. It was generally a different place every day, as avatars were expected to be jacks-of-all-trades, and today her job was acting quartermaster.

"Jackson, Diane your quarters are decks 12 section 3 B, or 1203 B. You will report to our Chief Medical Officer Trance Gemini for a routine physical tomorrow at 0900 hours. Orientation is at 1700 hours tonight in Conference Room Five; your leader will be Captain Beka Valentine. She will hand out your duty assignments. If you have any questions on how to get to either your quarters or the conference room, my AI will be happy to help you." Doyle heard Rommie rattle off with military efficiency. It was always the same speech. The names, rooms, and times changed with each person, and the orientation was either with 'Captain Dylan Hunt' or 'Captain Beka Valentine', but Doyle was sick of hearing it none-the-less. If she was sick of hearing it, she was almost certain Rommie was sick of saying it, and they were only taking on two-hundred-and-fifty today. Tomorrow they would have to do the entire dance all over again, and for the next two days after that.

Not that this sudden surge in population was a bad thing. Every version of Andromeda was elated and could not stop reminiscing over the old days, despite the tedium of processing new crewmembers, and the fact that all together the crew would still be under 1600 strong, a far cry from the 4000 Andromeda had in the old days. Harper, who was having no luck getting closer to where his message had originated from now had an entire crew of his own to take his mind off of things, and likewise, Trance who was going to be starting her second week back on duty tomorrow, but first week back in charge of medical, would be receiving a few nurses and a physicians assistant to help her out, along with the job of scanning each new crewmember into her medical database and checking for any medical problems that may have been missed before they were transferred to Andromeda. The busy work preparing for the new arrivals was already working wonders on two crewmembers that'd had far too much free time to think about what was wrong in their lives, and the added work could only help more.

Doyle scanned each item with her eyes, using Andromeda's sensors to confirm their contents. With a single thought she added them to their proper categories in the registry. Later today, bots would be sent to collect the items based on her work, and put them away where they needed to be.

Doyle finished scanning items just as the last crewmember was ushered out of the hangar deck. All of the newcomers had come onboard in groups with a commanding officer to keep them in line until assignments were given. Even so, keeping order over the next week and getting things together before they needed to set off to the Rindrin and Tagris systems was going to be a difficult task since the new crew outnumbered the old almost two to one. Starting tomorrow, the entire senior staff would be pulling five days worth of twelve-hour shifts until everything was in order, followed by a couple days rest, and then the beginning of their next mission. Until then…

"If that was the last of them, we're off duty." Doyle announced to her fellow avatar. In all respects, Dylan did not have to schedule Rommie and her for 24 hours off preceding their time-intensive rotation since they could not become fatigued, but when it came to scheduling, he treated them no differently than any other crewmember. Their time on duty ranged from eight to ten hours a day, with one or two days off, depending on the ship's current mission. They were, of course, on call at all times in case of an emergency, but were even switched between first and second shift, just as the rest of the senior staff was, rarely having to take third shift, though neither one of them needed sleep.

"It was the last of them and I am glad I don't have to give that speech again until this time tomorrow. Where are you going?"

"First I was going to ask you if you would help me carry these plants to hydroponics." She checked Andromeda's sensors quickly and said; "Trance and Harper are in there now. After that, I don't know. I will probably just spend some time with them."

"I will help." Rommie said with a nod and picked up a rather large pot holding a plant that resembled bamboo. It's stocks and leaves were tall, almost hiding Rommie's face. Doyle grabbed the other plant, a Galarian Rose Bush with delicate pink flowers and large, almost tropical, leaves. It too was a rather large plant, and its leaves tickled her chin. They walked side by side out the door and into the corridor.

"Do you think Trance will be able to handle a schedule like this so soon after coming back to work?" Doyle asked. Her voice was slightly muffled by a leaf that was determined to enter her mouth.

"I do not know, but she believes she can. I trust Trance will tell us if it becomes too difficult. You are scheduled to spend the next week with her in Medical, are you not?"

"I am. I think she and Harper are glad for the extra work. They both seem much happier now that they are busy." They came to their first ladder. Rommie set her plant down and ascended the ladder. Doyle passed up her own plant, which Rommie took and set aside, and then the other before following suite. There were only two ladders to climb between here and hydroponics.

"You spend a lot of time with them." Rommie commented once they had both resumed their walk.

"I suppose I do. I am concerned about our mission the Tagris system, though. I don't believe Harper or Trance should be present for that, especially Harper. He's seen one planet too many disintegrate before his eyes." Their footsteps rang through the corridor in time with one another's, an annoying similarity that, like so many others, they could not get rid of. Out of the corner of her eye Doyle caught the slightly confused looks of new recruits trying to puzzle out the mystery behind two petite women carrying two very large, and very heavy, potted plants down the hall with ease. There was a lot about Andromeda they would undoubtedly find strange and have to get used to.

"I agree, which is why I recommended a different solution to Dylan this morning. The Rindrins understand that I have to be in the Tagris system during their signing." They reached their second ladder and proceeded to follow the same procedure as before. Rommie continued where she left off once they began walking again. "However, they still desire a delegation from me during their festivities, seeing as how I am the Commonwealth's greatest asset." Doyle rolled her eyes and was slightly glad that Rommie could not see her behind the rose bush. They were both incredibly confident and had high opinions of themselves. Whether it was programming, or simply how each one's personalities developed from the initial programming, she didn't know, but in her opinion, in Rommie's case, someone had gone overboard. "If we don't send a delegation they will be deeply insulted, so I recommended that Trance and Harper be sent to Rindra along with Beka on the Maru."

"Why didn't you tell me any of this before talking to Dylan? And why Beka and no one else?"

"I recommended Beka because a festival on Rindra is the perfect place to host talks with a few more Nietzchean prides, and as for not telling you, I don't tell you everything."

"That much is obvious." Doyle stated. For some reason she and Rommie could be best friends one moment and work together in perfect cooperation, and the next be unable to speak a cordial sentence the next.

"Like you tell me everything." Rommie said. Doyle huffed and glared futilely through the foliage.

"_I_ don't have to tell you everything because _you_ find out everything on your own."

"Like how you're in love with Harper?" Rommie inquired. Doyle stopped where she was and quickly scanned the area for new recruits and briefly thought that Rommie had better thank her circuits no one was there. The other android's voice didn't sound particularly malicious, and there was no note of teasing there either, and indeed using Harper against her for the sake of their rivalry would have been a cruel and adolescent ploy, but her feelings for Harper were not supposed to be public knowledge. She was only slightly aware of them herself.

"_That_ is none of your business," she said in a voice sharp enough to cut. Rommie simply shrugged with an indiscernible smile on her face. "And you can honestly tell me you don't love Harper?" she asked. Rommie's smile disappeared somewhat at having this turned back towards her. "I'll know if you're lying."

"Loving Harper and being _in love_ with Harper are two very different things."

"I suppose you are perfectly qualified to tell the difference?" Doyle shot back.

"I actually didn't bring this up to argue with you. I brought it up because I was curious and thought that if it were true, it might be a good thing."

"Well you could have picked a better way to bring it up. Or even a better time." Her reprimand was noted with a quick apology and then,

"So I am not wrong?" Doyle sighed deeply. Rommie wasn't exactly the person she'd envisioned sharing her deepest emotional secrets with, and yet, as she stood there she could come up with no real reason not to tell her. Sure, they argued… a lot… but they shared a strong connection that was different from anything she shared with the rest of the crew. Dylan had said they argued like siblings who were too close in age, and perhaps he was a little bit right. They acted like sisters more often than not, and if Harper created them both, didn't that make them siblings in some weird, twisted, way?

"No, you are not wrong." She resumed her walking, but at a much slower pace, as they were nearing the hydroponics bay and she wanted to be finished with this conversation by the time they reached it. "But I don't see why you would think it a good thing. I never got the impression you were interested in affairs of the heart." Rommie shrugged, the plant's leaves bouncing with the motion.

"Just because I do not enjoy gossip and discussing people's relationships the way you do does not mean I don't find them interesting or important. Harper has not been the same since Earth's destruction. He pretends to be, but he is much quieter and far more reserved. It has been my observation that relationships often help organics in times like these. He loves you, I am sure of it." Doyle had always known that no matter how tough Rommie was on Harper that she cared for him deep inside, but the tenderness in which she was speaking now was a shock. She began to see Rommie a bit differently. She had thought her incapable of the level of emotion she was able to feel, but it was quickly becoming apparent that Rommie was just more outwardly reserved.

"As am I, but Harper is not going to find out how I feel because I have no desire for a relationship with him."

"I don't understand, isn't a relationship the logical outcome?"

"Perhaps for organics, but it is enough for me to be near him and know he is happy. I don't wish to sleep with him, or marry him. I just want to share my life with him." They were silent for a few moments, the only sound coming from their heels clicking against the deck plates, and then Rommie said,

"It could be interesting." Doyle narrowed her eyes.

"What?"

"Sleeping with Harper." Her words were quite a-matter-of-fact and Doyle stopped for the second time in her conversation with Rommie, this time out of shock.

"Excuse me?"

"From a purely scientific point of view," the other android clarified. Doyle laughed.

"What could possibly be scientific about sleeping with Harper?" She began walking again, now that the shock had worn off some. Not that she hadn't thought about giving into his innuendos once or twice, just to see what all his talk was about, but she had been very considerate of his emotions by turning him down every time.

"Well, he does claim to be a love god." Doyle laughed again, this time more deeply.

"Well, I will not be the girl to tell you, but by all means feel free to test your hypothesis yourself. I seriously doubt there will be many objections on the part of the subject." Rommie laughed and then said with a great deal of affection,  
"I couldn't do that to Harper. He deserves someone who is willing to make a commitment to him. I was sort of counting on you."

"I'm not what Harper needs," she replied, "What he needs is someone to fall in love with him that he did not create." There was a moment of silence while Rommie contemplated her words. Doyle understood what calculations Rommie must have been going through. The formula had to involve Harper's famed way with women, how much alcohol was involved, and the ever illusive variable of how much of his true self he was willing to show any woman who got remotely close to him. Doyle would be impressed if even Trance, with her powers to detect probabilities, could come up with a decent answer.

"Where are we going to find a woman like that? He's so… Harper." Rommie asked, the last part stated fondly.

"I honestly don't know Rommie, but I have a couple of ideas. We're here," she said by way of concluding their conversation. The door slid open and she stepped into Trance's second favorite garden, her fist being the small roomful of plants she kept on the Eureka Maru.

Doyle loved the hydroponics bays on Andromeda, and had from the moment she'd first stepped into one. Seefra was a wasteland. What few forests that existed were young and sparse, and there were no flowers aside from a few scrawny weeds that had prickly looking orange petals and smelled sour. She'd listened to Harper talk about plains of soft grass, tall trees that bore sweet fruits, and flowers whose petals were softer than fabric and could fill a room with the scent of perfume without truly understanding what he meant. A small part of her, the part that was Rommie she now supposed, told her that what he said was true, and that it was wonderful, but Doyle had no point of reference. She'd never even smelled perfume before.

She had been amazed the first time she'd stepped into one of Trance's gardens. It had been the one where Dylan played basketball, one of five dedicated solely to the growth of vegetables. Andromeda could synthesis food with no trouble, and the dozen or so hydroponics gardens weren't nearly enough to feed a crew of four thousand, but they were a wonderful supplement to regularly gathered supplies, and had almost independently sustained the original five organic crewmembers for several years. There were no flowers there, but everything had been green and full of life, something completely different from what she was used to. The first time she'd stepped into this garden, she'd been almost overwhelmed.

This was the garden Trance grew most of her fruits in, kept ponds of fish, and collected flower specimens from all over the Universe, and it was the largest on Andromeda, taking up almost half a deck. The ceiling was high in here with lighting the mimicked sunshine. The walls were painted in various shades of blue, and the deck plates had been painted a grassy green. In one corner was a very large bed of soil, slightly raised from the deck, in which were planted several rows of fruit trees, each row of about ten a different type. Some were tall with broad trunks, others thin and wispy, and still others short and stubby. Their leaves varied from many shades of green, to reddish orange on some. Parallel to this soil bed, with about enough space for two people to walk side by side between, was another where fruit bearing vines grew in rows, held up by delicate trellises of wire. A large pond with water plants, many of them edible, took up the center of the room. It was clear and sparkled with thousands of tiny bubbles produced by jets meant to aerate. Inside, swam a few varieties of freshwater fish. There was a small room in another corner with clear walls that contained a separate environment where warm weather flowers sat in pots on long, low tables. Another corner contained a science workstation and a rack of gardening tools, and everywhere else were rows of pedestals with small self-contained environmental bubbles filled with a wide variety of potted plants. The larger plants, like what she and Rommie were about to deliver, took up any extra space that wasn't either designated as a pathway or sitting space. Without the help of Maria Bots and an intricate system of environmental controls for temperature and automatic watering, there was no way Trance would have been able to care for so many specimens. And yet, amazingly, she knew each plant, had named them, and cared deeply for their fates.

It wasn't exactly a garden like those in the old Earth films she watched with Harper sometimes, or those she'd glimpsed during a short visit to Terazed, but she hadn't even known what a garden was supposed to look like when she'd stepped inside for the first time. She hadn't been prepared for powerful smell of earth, the sweetness of the flowers, or the variety of bold colors that met her eyes. Several of the fruit trees had been in bloom at the time and she knew she had never seen anything more beautiful. It had only taken her a moment to go and feel the petals of the nearest blossom just to see if Harper had been telling the truth. She had not been disappointed.

Right now, the room was bright, and some sort of rock version of classical Earth music blasted from the communications system, loud, but a great deal quieter than Harper usually played it. The room's two occupants were hidden from her at the moment, but she could hear Trance's delicate voice singing along to the music, slightly off key. She nodded to Rommie and they stepped further in. It was a matter of moments before she caught sight of Harper, leaning against the trunk of a wide-leafed fruit tree, tinkering with some device or other. A large basket, half full of large red and yellow kirin fruits, was beside him. All she could see of Trance was a pair of slender legs clothed in loose-fitted trousers of soft wine-colored leather standing on three-tiered step stool. The tree's leaves engulfed her entire torso. Harper looked up at the sound of their footsteps.

"Hey, Trance, a couple of plants just walked in the door," he called out as if he were pointing out something as natural as one of Andromeda's bots manning a duty station. He then greeted the androids with a flirtatious smile. There was a rustle of leaves as Trance came down into a crouch on the stepstool, a couple of kirin fruits the size of fists in her hands.

"What?" she asked in a bemused tone that dually indicated she thought Harper was full of it. She glanced in the general direction of the door, took notice of the androids and turned back to Harper. She dropped the fruits into the basket and hit him gently on the back of the head saying,

"Don't be silly." Harper feigned injury, but she merely looked back towards the doorway. "Hi Doyle, Rommie." Doyle tried to stifle her laugh at Harper's disgruntled expression." Hi Trance," she replied, still laughing. Harper glared at her, but it was obvious his heart was not in it, which only made her laugh harder. Laughter came easily around him, and giving him a hard time was her favorite past time.

"These plants were delivered for you with the rest of the supplies. Where would you like them?" Rommie asked.

"Just set them down in that corner. I haven't decided where to put them yet." Doyle followed Rommie, setting down the plants in the area indicated. When she turned back towards the tree, Trance was admonishing Harper for trying to steal fruit out of the basket.

"Those are for the salad tonight," she explained with the air of one who had already said it more than once. Doyle found herself wondering, for what must have been the ten millionth time, what it was like to eat, and drink, to actually taste food. Deep down inside she longed to be more Human, to share in the things that made them what they were. She wanted to live, love, and have a family one-day, just as they did. Watching her crewmembers eat was a silent reminder that she was not like them, and that her future most likely wouldn't involve scenes of domestic bliss.

"Yeah, Yeah, Yeah…" Harper mumbled, turning back to his little trinket. It gave a few shrill, objecting beeps as he tinkered with it. Trance gave Doyle an amused smile and disappeared into the tree once more. Doyle began moving closer, Rommie following suite. Harper flashed her his most mischievous smile as he slowly began reaching for the basket. Rommie crossed her arms over her chest in a very motherly fashion, but Doyle just smiled at his antics. Trance poked her head out of the leaves, linking her eyes with Doyle's. She nodded in Harper's direction and then raised an eyebrow, the question of his actions clearly written on her face. Harper's attention was now fully focused on grabbing a fruit, so Doyle nodded.

Trance now had a look of mischief on her face. Doyle could see that she held a rather large _kirin_ fruit in her hand, which she was now dangling over Harper's head. He remained oblivious to anything going on around him as he perused the basket, searching for the best specimen for consumption. He was leaning over on one hand, while the other held his trinket above the ground. Trance's eyes queried Doyle and Rommie. Doyle glanced over at her companion. Rommie looked scandalized, which only heightened Doyle's reserve. Biting her lip to keep from laughing, she gave Trance an enthusiastic nod. The girl seemed almost giddy as she bounced on her toes a couple of times before letting loose her fingers. Andromeda's artificial gravity took hold of the fruit and it fell from Trance's hand making contact with Harper's skull a moment later amidst a tinkling of feminine laughter. He yelped, jumping back onto his rear-end. The trinket in his hand flew into the air, making a brilliant arc, before crashing to the ground, almost perfectly timed with a crescendo in the music. His look of indignation at the offending fruit only made Doyle laugh harder, and she could see it was much the same with Trance.

"Are you all right, Harper?" Rommie asked as she rushed over and retrieved the fallen device.

"Harper has a head harder than your hull." Doyle explained. Harper rubbed a hand over the spot where he'd been hit. His face was red with embarrassment, and as per usual, he covered it with a joke,

"If I say I'm not, will you kiss me and make it better?"

"Yeah, that's gonna work," Trance said with a giggle. Doyle sniggered at the glare he shot at her, because there was clearly no anger in it. She had been told that Trance and Harper were well known for their naughtiness both onboard the Eureka Maru and Andromeda Ascendant. There were stories of practical joke wars, card games gone wrong, impromptu dance parties on the Obs deck, and late night races that pitted either Andromeda or the Maru's engines against some outside foe. It was almost hard to believe that Trance, especially the golden version she knew, had ever participated in activities like that, but Doyle was quickly discovering that the playful girl who loved games and reveled in chaos was still buried deep within the quiet and reserved girl who existed now, digging her way out more and more each day.

"I think since you dropped the fruit, you ought to kiss me. I think my communications particle tracker and receiver might have broken when I dropped it." Trance gave him a sympathetic frown,

"I'm sorry about you device, but you're still not getting a kiss. Besides, I don't see how it can work any less than it did before." She disappeared back into the tree and Harper grabbed the piece of fruit she'd hit him with and took a giant bite. Doyle moved closer, kneeling down beside him to get a better look at his trinket. It looked like a mess of parts, but as she scanned it she could see there were components of communications scanning and receiving devices involved, all attached to a small monitor that looked like it had been ripped from a comm. device. Rommie handed it back to him. He set the fruit down on his lap and gave it a dejected poke. Instead of the indigent beeping it had graced them with earlier, it chirped pleasantly and began a gentle and rhythmic bleeping. Harper's whoop of joy startled Trance, forcing Doyle to stand up and catch her with her enhanced reflexes as the girl slipped off the stepping stool.

"What is it?" she asked with a note of alarm once her charge was safely on the ground. A cursory glance at Trance showed that she was frightened and concerned, but no worst for wear.

"It's actually working." No one could miss the awe in his voice.

"It is?" Trance asked, her voice mimicking his emotion. Doyle narrowed her eyes.

"What is it?" she asked. She could tell what it was made out of, and had a general theory as to what it was supposed to do, but when it came to Harper's inventions no one could truly be certain what their intended purpose was.

"Trance, you're still as lucky as ever! Have I told you lately that no matter what, you're still my Golden Love Goddess?" Doyle looked up in time to see a lovely blush spread across Trance's face as she fought back a nervous smile. Based on his words, comments like these must have been the norm at some point, but Doyle had never heard him speak to her like this before. Granted, her experience with Trance, and subsequently with the two of them together, had begun on Seefra, but Harper seemed to always guard his comments around her. Inquiries into that particular phenomenon had not produced more than a statement from Beka that there were pages of history between the two of them, and that the awkwardness would go away eventually, as it always did.

"I didn't do anything…" Trance said. Doyle felt it was time to take the attention off of her friend and asked again what it was.

"It's a work of pure genius," was his response. Rommie raised her eyebrows, Trance rolled her eyes, and Doyle crossed her arms over her chest.

"Of course it is, you made it, but what does it do?"

"It is some sort of communications device. Does it have something to do with the Earthers' message?" Rommie asked. Harper took on the look of an eager student trying to impress his teachers.

"Every communication that is sent out leaves a scattering of particles, or static, across the universe. These particles can spread out very far, but there is always a denser trail that can lead you back to the general area in which the message came from. The particles are so small that regular sensors can't pick them out, or even distinguish them from the rest of the static in space. This device is specifically programmed to scan and seek out the particles specific to the message to Earth and extrapolate where it came from." If he had truly created something that could seek out such small and insignificant particles, it really was a work of genius, and she was proud of him, but there was one major hitch in his plan that she felt was her responsibility to point out, especially since the last time they thought they'd had a lead it turned out to be a dead end. One look over at Rommie told her that the other android must have come to the same conclusion. She quickly sent a direct message to Rommie that she had this one, hoping that the other android wouldn't feel insulted, and perhaps be glad not to be the bearer of bad news. The truth was, that being more sensitive to emotion than Rommie, she was better for tasks like this. Rommie did not argue.

"Harper… It's wonderful that you have found a way to find the origins of this message, but you must know that when it extrapolates the area with the densest particles, it has been long enough that they will have dispersed, and the area it comes up with will be huge." Harper nodded, telling her that he'd already considered this.

"Even a huge area is better than knowing nothing at all, right?"

"I agree," said Trance. "The device has to have time to work, doesn't it? We should celebrate." Harper smiled brightly at her suggestion, but his smile fell a little a moment later.

"Where?" he asked in an incredulous tone, "I mean look at us, we're off duty and hanging out in the hydroponics bay."

"What's wrong with that?" Trance asked in a small voice, a frown on her face, Harper having just put down her favorite off duty activity. Doyle was inclined to agree with her. She saw no problem with hanging out in a place so full of life, however she could see Harper's side of this as well.

"On Seefra we spent all of our off duty time at the bar," she supplied in a voice meant to appease Harper.

"Andromeda doesn't have anything like the bar. We could hang out in the Officer's Mess, or in the Crew Mess if we wanted to spend time with more people, but it's just not the same," Harper stated, looking at Trance with an apologetic smile.

"What Andromeda needs is a bar," she said after a moment with a smile on her face, Harper's comments already forgotten. With Harper the ability to forgive insensitivity was not only a bonus it was a necessity.

"I don't know how well that fits in with Commonwealth Policy. What do you think, Rommie?" Harper asked. Doyle inwardly applauded him for including her in a discussion about making changes to her core self. She looked thoughtful for a moment and then said,

"Before the fall there was some discussion about making ships of the high guard more like homes, with longer terms of service, and social venues on ships much like myself. The idea was to see whether crew efficiency in such an environment would improve, or disintegrate. Since is was an approved experiment, already being put into practice, I would not object to something similar here provided the proper documentation was made." Doyle smiled at her. She got a shadow of a feeling, as she sometimes did with Rommie, that in the past she wouldn't have even considered such an option for herself.

"Seriously?" Harper asked. Doyle rolled her eyes playfully said,

"No Harper, Rommie was just saying that to get your hopes up." Even Rommie laughed at this one. There was a jubilant feeling in the air as they discussed how best to bring up such an idea to Dylan. The first consensus was that since Trance had a close relationship with him that the task should fall on her shoulders, but with a little help from Trance, it was decided that since it was Rommie's core self they were talking about, it should be her who brought it up, signifying of course that it was the wish of some of her crew. After that was decided, they had to choose a place and means of celebration in the interim. The Eureka Maru became the venue of choice, their only complaint being that Dylan and Beka could not join them, being currently engaged in orientations.

The device sat on a table near them during their off duty festivities, beeping away, collecting particles. Doyle looked at it from time to time, hoping for Harper's sake that whatever the result would be, it would help him find his people. He would never be happy if there were no closure, for better or for worst, and after all, her only desire was for his happiness.

AAAAAAAAAAA

A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter. School has begun again, and the life on an English major is full of reading and writing (which is my passion so I don't mindP), but needless to say, chapters will likely be coming slower than before. I just want you to know that if some time passes and I have not updated, I have not forgotten this story. I am bound and determined to finish to prove to myself I can.

If anyone is also interested, I am working on a couple of prequels set in this universe, shorter stories that allow me to play with some of the ideas that I am learning in class. I hope you all enjoyed. Please review. I love hearing your feedback!


	11. Progress

Her back ached. Her feet hurt. Her arms were from too much time spent piloting a slipfighter. She had a headache, most likely from hunger, and her throat was parched and pained from sixteen hours of alternately shouting orders to new recruits and negotiating with her Nietzchean subjects. In this case, the term 'negotiate' was used in the lightest sense possible.

There were days in the Seefra system when she would have given up her soul for the chance to return to the universe of her birth, at least the one she was most acquainted with. Now, she was wondering what was so great about it. At least on Seefra she'd had time to sleep. She was only scheduled for twelve hours of work, just the same as the rest of the crew, but unfortunately those twelve hours were allocated for administrative duties such as writing reports, organizing crewmembers, and drilling her new slipfighter pilots. Uniting the entire Nietzchean race, while important and time consuming, was considered extra curricular.

All she wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep until this latest set of crisis blew over, no matter how long it took. But, she knew that wasn't going to be possible. In fact, as she stepped onboard the Maru, she realized that it might not even happen tonight. Her ship was not empty.

The Eureka Maru had feelings, and Beka could read them as well as she could read her own. Nothing looked different as she stepped through the airlock. The walls were still a worn bronze with a faded yellow trim, and smoke still leaked from a faulty pipe near the airlock that Harper had replaced at least a half-a-dozen times before giving up. The air still smelled of oil, old metal, and Trance's potting soil. There was no other sound aside from the usual hum of machinery, but Beka knew she was not alone. There was an energy in the air, a presence of sorts, and she knew to whom it belonged. The children were home for the night.

With light footsteps, calculated to reduce the clanking of her boots on the deck-plates, Beka moved away from the entrance. As she passed the vine-covered grate that separated Trance's room from the rest of the ship, she thought she detected the flicker of candlelight, but kept moving, across the hall, and into the Maru's makeshift galley with adjacent berthing room. The lights were dim in here and in the air was the rhythmic whisper of Harper's almost snores. Beka stepped into the darkened berth.

All of the lower bunks were neat and made up save for a missing blanket on Trance's. From Harper's bunk up a little higher, however, drooped a limp arm and more than half a blanket. Beka looked up to see the arm's owner resting on his stomach, face smashed against a pillow with lips slightly parted, precariously close to the edge of his bunk. His other arm was pinned beneath the pillow and one of his feet was suspended in the air. His blanket seemed to be holding on by a corner, which was drawn over his lower back and tucked beneath his body. He rested perfectly still, all signs of the manic energy that possessed him during the daytime hours gone.

Beka allowed a soft smile at the scene before her. Gently and quietly, she stepped onto the bunk's ladder and pulled his blanket back over his body. He did not stir. When she had finished, she placed a tender hand on his back, feeling the warmth of his skin through the t-shirt he was wearing, and the blessed stillness of his body. She watched him for a moment while he slept, as she had done on occasion for many years now. He was nearly thirty-years-old if you counted his years on Seefra, but she could still see the nervous young adult who had boarded her ship at twenty, acting more like a fifteen-year-old boy, over-eager, and ready to please.

She could remember dozens of nightmare filled nights in his first years with her. He had suffered alone in the beginning, unwilling to open up. Whether it was out of distrust, fear of rejection, or both, she could not say. She was always cautious when it came to emotion. But, eventually she reached out to the boy she had adopted into her life. It was never much, just a hand on his shoulder and a murmur of 'it is all right' or 'you don't have to worry about that anymore', but it had done the trick. Sometimes she would stop his nightmares while he slept by doing just was she was doing right now, as if the simplest touch of someone who cared was enough to chase away the demons. She had no doubt that in these tremulous times his sleep was filled with nightmares again, but at least for tonight, he was sound.

Beka drew her hand away and descended the ladder. There was one more to check on before she could let herself sleep. It was ridiculous, really, to be so concerned. Both of them were grown adults who didn't need any looking after. In light of Trance's age, which she guessed to be quite substantial, the notion of playing caregiver was even laughable. However, they had both been children (at least she'd _thought_ Trance was a child) when she'd met them and taken them in, and as the ancient saying went, old habits died hard.

Trance was in her room. Four large candles in various stages of life, all with sculpture-like wax drippings glued to their sides, lit the small room, casting a considerable amount of illumination for a source entirely non-mechanical. Trance was in a hammock towards the center of the room, and while Harper had been sleeping in peace, she was not. Her brow, shimmering in the candlelight, was furrowed and her lips pursed. She wriggled in the hammock, swinging it back and forth. Trance was in imminent danger of falling out of the hammock so she rushed to the girl's rescue.

"Trance," she said softly, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Trace, it's okay, wake up."

It took a few moments for the girl to register any signs of change, but her agitated movements began to slow, and as they stopped, her eyes fluttered open, clouded in tired confusion. Beka withdrew her hand.

"Huh?" Trance murmured, looking around for a moment before focusing her bleary eyes on Beka's face.

"Hey," Beka whispered as she kneeled down beside the girl. Her knee came into contact with something uneven and she glanced down to see a small pile of discarded flexis. She pushed them out of her way and said, "Burning the midnight oil?"

"I was," she answered, her voice hoarse. With sluggish movements she righted herself on the hammock and then began tugging at a blanket, which was wrapped around her limbs and stuck beneath her body. Trance huffed in frustration, pursed her lips at the stubborn cloth, and yanked harder. The hammock swung dangerously and Beka figured it was time to help her groggy friend out. It took very little effort to untangle the girl and, once finished, she set the blanket neatly about Trance's shoulders. Trance watched her with tired eyes and cheeks colored a faint red in embarrassment. "I am not used to waking up tired yet," she explained.

"I don't think anyone ever gets used to it." Beka settled herself into a more comfortable position. "I'm surprised you're not all tucked into bed. Didn't you work twelve hours today? After spending so much time in Medical, the last thing I'd want to do is work more." Trance shrugged her shoulders.

"I guess we have all been working more than twelve hours with everything that must be done. We have to do what is on our schedule, but none of us are working on merely one project, are we?"

"Our lives go on outside the duty roster, unfortunately. _But_, some of us should be taking it easy. We're all a little worried that you're working too hard." Beka picked up a flexi and waved it in front of Trance. The girl gave a soft smile.

"I am all right. No one needs to worry. I was just helping Harper analyze the data from his device. He narrowed it down to five hundred places in which the message to Earth could have originated, and I wanted to see if I could narrow it down even further."

"Did he ask you to?" If he had asked Trance to take on more work, she knew of a few waste receptacles that were in want of maintenance.

"No, he might be upset if he knew. He brought me dinner this evening and as soon as I yawned he insisted I take the rest of the night off and sleep. I have never known him to worry so much. It's sweet." Her fingers toyed with the hem of her blanket. "I did not have this before. Someone must've brought it to me." Beka nodded.

"Probably Harper. He's asleep on his bunk. He certainly has his moments. Seven years ago I wouldn't have thought him capable of chivalry, but what do you know, he's got a gentleman hidden inside." Trance giggled.

"_Deep _inside."

"If it took this long to bring out the gentleman, how long do you think table manners will take?" This time, she chuckled.

"I can't even calculate that probability." Beka picked up another flexi and glanced at it. A series of complex equations and extrapolations, more in depth than anything she was used to seeing, scrolled across the screen.

"Speaking of probabilities, did you make any progress on this?" Beka tapped the screen. Trance nodded, though her expression did not encourage.

"By using what I can do, I managed to narrow it down to 326 possible places of origination. With Andromeda's help, we came up with 147." Beka whistled.

"That's a lot."

"Everything is in one of those flexis. I guess they slipped off my lap when I fell asleep." Beka picked up a flexi and showed it to Trance. The girl shook her head. Beka picked up another with the same reaction, leaving only one more. She turned it on and scrolled through the star charts. She recognized the area as one that the Maru had not traveled in many years, in fact, not since Trance had joined her crew. There were several rather touchy reasons why not, however the most prominent of them was that even though it was a sector where jobs came easy, the Maru was blacklisted.

"It came from that hell hole?"

"Yeah."

"I'm sure even Harper will agree that a tromp through that sector of space doesn't sound like a whole lot of fun."

"I do not think it matters to him. They are his people." A yawn escaped Trance's lips as soon as she finished speaking, which reminded Beka that the girl was still in need of sleep, a valuable commodity these days. As far as she could tell, eight hours of sleep to Trance was the equivalent of six to Beka, manageable, but not enough. If she kept Trance up much longer there was a chance that she would fall asleep on duty tomorrow. Even though there was little risk of fatal error in filing medical reports on new recruits, it still would not be good. She was impressed with how well Trance was holding up against the long hours. Dylan seemed to feel that Trance was some sort of doll that could be broken with ease, but the girl was a lot tougher than that.

"I'm sure Harper would go anywhere and do anything if it meant finding his people, as scary as that sounds," Beka replied. "But, lets not talk about it anymore. We need to get you to bed." Trance shrugged.

"I am afraid that if I try to sleep, the dreams will return," she said with her eyes downcast. Beka felt sympathy for her friend, but did not know how to help. She knew the horrors in Harper's past. She understood from where his nightmares sprung, so it was easy to relate. With Trance, things were different. She did not know how to comfort a star. However, Trance seemed human often enough, so she figured that a little compassion would not hurt.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Trance seemed to consider the request for a moment, her dark eyes, so full of emotion, fixed on Beka's face.

"I was dreaming about my brother," she said, "He was in trouble." Beka knew of Trance's twin from information relayed to her by Dylan. He was a part of a past that the girl still rarely spoke of, and who could blame her? Beka gave her a sympathetic smile.

"I know about those dreams. My little brother is always in trouble. Sometimes I wake up with my heart pounding, ready to fly to the rescue… You know, I don't even know where he is right now. Is your brother the type to get into trouble?" The girl pulled her blanket tighter around herself. On her face was a look of contemplation.

"He is actually the most responsible out of the two of us, but he doesn't know his place. Men are not treated as equals in the Lambent Kith. We make a bow towards equality, but their voices are not heard and the punishment for going against the Nebula is harsher. Men are not given major positions like nurturing important species, but he was. He was given Earth to watch over. His light allowed Humans to become the second most influential species in this universe, and it is all because he was the first born in this Universe, and my twin. His voice has always been heard, and I am not sure he can keep quiet now that I have no position to protect him with. He does not know how much I have protected him in the past."

"Your brother sounds amazing."

"He is. I do not want anything to happen to him." Beka thought for a moment and then said,

"It sounds like your brother might be exactly what your people need right now." Trance's brow wrinkled and the tired lines around her eyes became more defined.

"I don't understand."

"Your brother sounds like the type of person who could bring about change, and it sounds like what your people need most right now _is_ change." Trance looked horrified and Beka thought that maybe it would have been best for her to keep her mouth shut. Her father had always told her to think before she spoke, but it had never been one of her strong points.

"A revolutionary, Beka?" The girl shook her head, "No." Beka placed a hand on Trance's knee. She shook her head again and whispered "Revolutionaries die." Beka gave her knee a gentle squeeze.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said anything." Trance's expression softened and Beka knew she was forgiven. Trance was always quick to forgive those she loved. Another yawn escaped her lips. Beka stood up and reached out a hand, "C'mon, we really do need to get you to bed." Trance nodded and grabbed her hand sending a wave of heat through Beka's palm. She helped Trance to her feet and the girl situated the blanket around her shoulders so that it was not dragging on the deck plates. "I have good news for you," Beka said.

"Oh?"

"Dylan and I discussed your guys' idea for a bar today and he told me I could tell you the answers was a yes." Her eyes brightened.

"That's wonderful. Harper and Doyle will be so excited." Beka was about to respond, but the sound of the airlock opening behind her interrupted. Her first instinct was to reach for her pistol, but Trance just turned around. A second later she was no longer by Beka's side.

"Rhade!" the girl exclaimed, reaching out to embrace the tall Nietzchean man who'd just stepped onto Beka's ship. Beka relaxed her shooting arm. Years of experience told her that someone entering her ship without permission was dangerous, however it was ridiculous to assume danger while parked in one of Andromeda's cargo bays. Rhade accepted Trance's embrace, wrapping his arms around her slender body, and then letting her go a moment later. The girl looked up at him with an affectionate gaze. It was amazing how Rhade had worked his way into the hearts of the Andromeda crew.

"Trance," he replied, "How are you?" Beka watched his eyes travel in concerned fashion over her body as if he were searching for a sign of her earlier convalescence, "You look well."

"I am well, just tired. No one told us you would be returning. I thought you were staying with your wife and children." Rhade nodded.

"I was, but I was growing restless. In these dangerous times, it did not feel right to sit comfortably at home. My wife could see this, and was the one who insisted I return."

"Well, I for one am glad you are back," Trance said. She then looked over her shoulder to Beka and back to Rhade again, "but it is late, and I am tired. I think I will try and get some sleep before tomorrow." Rhade nodded.

"Then I will see you in the morning."

"Goodnight." Trance turned around and headed towards the berthing area, blanket still draped over her shoulders like a superhero's cape. As she passed, Beka put a hand on her shoulder and gave a small squeeze.

"Try and get some sleep, okay?"

"You too," she replied and then disappeared around a shadowy corner. Beka was left alone with Rhade. He looked good. His face was clean-shaven save for his goatee and he wore civilian clothing, black slacks and an emerald green sweater. She took a few steps closer. For the life of her, she could not figure out what to think. She had missed him, true, but things were always so awkward when they were together. She was the mother of his species, the woman he was taught to revere from birth, but she was also Beka, loud-mouthed, independent, and stubborn. It was clear he didn't know how to act around her anymore, and that made it hard for her to interact with him.

"So, um, welcome back," she said. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. He took a step forward and then seemed to think better of it and stayed where he was. He stood tall with his hands clasped behind his back. Even in civvies his stance screamed 'military'.

"Thank you," he replied. She made an executive decision and decided to be the one to close the gap between them.

"How are the wife and kids?" There was a glimmer of amusement in Rhade's eyes. Damn him. He knew how difficult this was for her and was enjoying it. She also realized as she asked about his family how little she actually knew of it. He had a wife, yes. One wife, which was unusual for a Nietzchean man, and he had children, but she did not know how many or what their sexes were.

"They are doing well. My oldest, Marin, has expressed her wish to be a pilot, and both children wish to meet the Matriarch, especially my son. My wife has told them the legends, and I am afraid they see you as a storybook character come to life." The last comment threw her a bit. She had spent a great deal of time trying to figure out what it meant to be the Matriarch, but had never once considered the way small children might view her, or how they might look up to her.

"Um, I would love to meet your kids some time, but I am afraid I will disappoint them. I'm nothing special." Rhade tilted his head to one side.

"As I have tried to explain to them." There was a hint of playful sarcasm in his voice. She rolled her eyes and gave him a look that told him exactly how funny she thought he was. "You are not fond of children, are you?" he asked. Beka shook her head.

"Not really. I don't mind them so much if they are well behaved, belong to someone else, and I don't have to look after them. Harper and Trance were enough to take care of, and they were fully grown when I got a hold of them." Rhade gave her a knowing look.

"I think that you fear what you don't understand. Since you have never been around small children, you are afraid of them. I hope one day you will have the opportunity to see the blessing living with children can offer." Beka crossed her arms over her chest and schooled her expression into one of annoyance. Rhade did not need to know how right he was.

"The only way that will happen is if someone close to me has children, and I don't see that happening anytime soon—Hey, did Dylan know you were coming?" She changed the subject so quickly that a momentary look of confusion crossed Rhade's face before he figured it out.

"Yes, though he only found out yesterday. With all the new recruits, he was understandably grateful for my help."

"No kidding. Come on, let's go somewhere where we can sit and talk. I've been standing or piloting all day and if I'm not going to get any sleep, I would at least like to sit down." Rhade nodded for her to lead the way. She turned around and began the short trek to the Maru's command deck.

Usually, she would invite company to join her in the galley where they could sit around the scratched and beat up table with a drink and chat, but since it was connected to the berthing room where Harper and Trance were supposed to be sleeping, she decided it would be best if they just passed through. She indicated to Rhade with a finger over her lips that they needed to be quiet as they did. She took a second to look in on her crewmates. Harper was still in the same position she had left him in, and amazingly, Trance appeared to be deep in slumber as well, though she could not have crawled into bed more than three or four minutes before.

They passed out of the galley, turned a corner, and climbed a few steps before they reached command. The command deck hadn't changed much in the years she'd been piloting. It was still dingy and battle-scarred, but at the same time comfortable. The Maru, after all, was her home. She plopped down on the pilot's chair and Rhade balanced himself on the railing nearby.

"How is Trance really?" he asked. He had noticed her check on the girl. Beka shrugged.

"She's healthy, at least physically. Emotionally, your guess is as good as mine. She only really talks to Harper anymore. Sometimes Doyle, but that's probably because Doyle is with her more often than the rest of us are." At Rhade's questioning look Beka explained, "Doyle helps Trance out in medical, and is in charge of her physical training."

"I see. And how is Harper doing?"

"Better than anyone could hope for. You know he's looking for the people in the message you found? I think that is the only thing that has kept him from losing it. It gives him hope, something to focus on." Beka tried to stifle a deep yawn, but was unsuccessful. She put her hand up to her face to cover it, and then used it to wipe the excess moisture from her eyes that the yawn had caused. "You didn't come here this late at night to talk about the kids," she said. He nodded.

"No, I did not. I came here to tell you that the prides of Terazed are convinced that you are the Matriarch and are impressed with the progress you've made in such a short. It is their understanding that you will be taking the first steps towards creating an agreement pact between prides on Rindra next week." Beka nodded.

"That's right, all though I don't expect anything but a shouting match between pride leaders. It isn't anything special. The largest pride in attendance will be Ursa pride." Rhade shook his head and shifted himself into a more comfortable position.

"Ursa Pride is large and influential, their reign covers twenty planets and they have a following of at least a dozen smaller prides. If you get them onboard your pact will be in a good starting position. The prides of Terazed would like your permission to be present as well. They wish to sign the pact." Beka felt her eyes grow wide in surprise.

"Just like that? No argument?" she asked, still not sure if she should believe her ears.

"Yes." Beka leaned forward onto her elbows, they pressed almost painfully into her thighs. Rhade had been lounging, but now he was sitting straight and tall as he always did when he was being serious. There was something else there, too, a twinkle of joy in his eyes, and of pride.

"That means a lot to me, you have no idea." Rhade crossed his arms in front of his chest. He seemed to study her a moment before speaking.

"I did not want to accept you as the Matriarch. You were too stubborn, brash, and self-absorbed." Beka felt her face color and could not figure out whether it was embarrassment she felt, or anger, but she just pursed her lips and allowed him to continue without interruption. "But, now I see that if anyone could unite our people before the progenitor appears, it would be you." Now she knew for certain that it was embarrassment. She decided that the best way to keep her composure was to tell it like it really was.

"Rhade, if I get everyone who's coming to sign, there's still the Dragons and Jaguars to worry about. I am willing to negotiate everything else, but I have one stipulation, each pride must have a plan to abolish slavery within the next few years. Right now, the only people coming to the table are those that do not have slaves. I highly doubt the two largest and most dangerous prides in the Tri-Galaxies are going to give up their gravy train."

"Yes, but if everyone signs you will have 19 prides on your side. Every pride has contacts and influence with the other prides, even slave owning prides that could bring them to the table. There will come a time when we will have to strong-arm the Dragons and Jaguars, but where one Magog is manageable, a swarm is impossible to ignore." What he said made a lot of sense. Beka found herself involuntarily nodding in agreement. Rhade seemed to have the same power as Dylan did. When something seemed impossible he just had to put it a certain way, and suddenly impossible was just another word for 'minor roadblock'.

"Are you coming with us to Rindra?" she asked, hoping that his answer would be a yes since it would be a lot easier to face a roomful of Nietzcheans with one on her side.

"No, Dylan needs a good pilot for the Tagris system. Things are getting worst, and their desire to wait on an evacuation is not making it any easier."

"There is never good news without bad news is there?" she asked. It didn't seem fair that everything should be going well for her while an entire system of planets was about to disappear.

"I am afraid not. That is the way the universe works." Beka yawned again.

"I think it is time for bed, because tomorrow I have to get up and start all over again."

"Then I will leave you to your rest. Can I tell the pride leaders that you agree?" Beka smiled and gave him a nod,

"Yes, tell them I would be more than happy to see them on Rindra."


End file.
